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THE  LffiRARY  OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF 

NORTH  CAROLINA 

AT  CHAPEL  HILL 


ENDOWED  BY  THE 

DIALECTIC  AND  PHILANTHROPIC 

SOCIETIES 


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This  book  is  due  at  the  LOUIS  R.  WILSON  LIBRARY  on  the 
last  date  stamped  under  "Date  Due."  If  not  on  hold  it  may  be 
renewed  by  bnnging  it  to  the  library.  . 


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Form  No.  513  I 


PAGODA  SHADOWS 


Studies  from  Life  in  China. 

PS  7^5- 

BY  /2^^ 


ADELE   M.  FIELDE. 


INTRODUCTION  BY   JOSEPH   COOK. 


THIRD  EDITION. 


BOSTON  : 
W.    G.     CO  RTH  ELL 

1885. 


Copyright,  1S84, 
By  W.  G    CORTHELL. 


ELECTROTVPED   AND   TRINTED 

BY    RAND,    AVERY,    AND    COMPANY. 

BOSTON 


TO 


AMERICAN     WOMEN 


851276 


PREFACE. 


These  studies  were  made  during  a  residence 
of  ten  years  in  China,  with  a  knowledge  of  the 
language  of  the  people,  and  an  opportunity  for 
close  observation  of  their  social  customs.  The 
autobiographies  and  the  stories  are  exact  trans- 
lations of  verbal  narrations  given  to  the  author 

in  the  Swatow  dialect. 

A.  M.  F. 
Boston,  September,  1884. 


INTRODUCTION. 


When  leaving  China  for  Australia,  on  a  tour  of  the 
world,  there  were  placed  in  my  hands  several  pam- 
phlets, containing  autobiographies  of  Chinese  women. 
The  narratives  were  translated  with  great  literalness, 
from  verbal  statements  made  to  Miss  Fielde,  the 
authoress  of  the  present  volume,  by  women  to  whom 
she  had  been  permitted  to  bring  the  light  of  Christian 
history  and  faith.  I  read  the  pamphlets  as  I  crossed 
the  equator,  and  sailed  through  the  East  Indies  toward 
the  Southern  Cross.  I  studied  them  as  the  far-flashing 
purple  and  azure  of  the  seas  of  the  tropics,  and  the 
ever-living  green  of  the  islands  where  the  birds-of- 
paradise  have  their  homes,  lay  around  me.  The  con- 
trast of  the  woes  they  described,  with  the  glory  of  the 
scenery  through  which  I  was  passing,  was  very  striking. 
They  took  a  strong  hold  upon  my  sympathies,  and 
have  retained  it.     I  learned  to  love  China  by  coming 


X  INTRODUCTION. 

near  it.  I  saw  a  few  billows  of  its  life  so  close  at 
hand  as  to  be  able  to  look  into  them,  and,  through 
them,  into  the  depths  beneath  them.  The  multitudi- 
nous sea  of  those  billows  —  two  or  three  hundred 
millions  of  them  breaking  constantly  on  the  shores  of 
time  and  eternity  —  became  to  me  thereafter  a  new 
vision,  and  uttered  to  me  a  new  voice.  I  have  not 
lost  the  vision.     I  have  not  ceased  to  hear  the  voice. 

I  have  great  delight  in  commending  Miss  Fielde's 
work  to  the  public ;  fo*-  I  hope  that  a  near  view  of 
China,  such  as  she  gives,  may  affect  others  as  it  did 
me.  I  had  read  much  of  Chinese  history  and  statis- 
tics ;  I  had  examined  the  best  sources  of  information 
as  to  the  Chinese  religious  and  social  life ;  I  had 
studied  such  translations  of  the  Chinese  classics  as 
had  come  in  my  way :  but  I  found  that  the  simple, 
vivid  autobiographies,  written  out  by  Miss  Fielde  from 
the  actual  dictation  of  Chinese  women,  brought  me 
nearer  to  a  clear  view  of  Chinese  wants  than  any 
thing  else  I  had  used  as  a  guide. 

If  a  traveller  wishes  to  understand  a  strange  people, 
let  him  write  out  a  score  or  more  of  authentic  narra- 
tives of  their  typical  daily  hves,  in  minute  detail.  I 
wrote  to  Miss  Fielde  from  Australia,  begging  her  to 
prepare  and  authenticate  a  hundred  specimen  autobio- 
graphic narratives  of  Chinese  lives,  and  thus  interest 


INTRODUCTION.  XI 

the  world  in  China  by  a  near  and  clear  view  of  it.  A 
sheaf  of  a  hundred  autobiographies  from  the  heart  of 
China,  another  such  sheaf  from  Japan,  another  from 
India,  another  from  Africa,  another  from  the  isles  of 
the  sea,  would  show  that  the  sky  is  the  roof  of  but  one 
family. 

In  the  present  volume  on  "  Pagoda  Shadows," 
Miss  Fielde  has  given  a  near  and  vivid  view  of 
woman's  life  in  China.  Her  methods  of  religious 
labor  have  included  many  original  and  most  successful 
measures  for  enlisting  Chinese  women  in  effort  for 
the  am.elioration  of  the  condition  of  their  own  sex. 
Women  in  China  have  only  of  late  been  taught  to 
labor  religiously  for  the  spread  of  Chistianity.  Miss 
Fielde  is  a  pioneer  in  enlisting  this  new  kind  of  laborers. 
She  has  instructed  Chinese  women  in  the  Bible,  and 
sent  them  from  house  to  house  as  missionaries.  Their 
success  has  been  most  remarkable.  They  have  access 
to  circles  which  only  they  can  at  present  reach.  They 
quicken  the  hope  that  woman's  work  for  woman  in  Asia 
may,  in  due  time,  be  very  largely  performed  by  native 
women  themselves.  Without  underrating  any  other 
form  of  missionary  labor,  I  must  say  that  this  new 
development  of  the  aggressive,  self-supporting,  and 
self-propagating  powers  of  Christianity  is  full  of  most 
cheerful  prophecy  as  to  the  possibilities  of  the  future 
in  every  land  not  yet  Christian. 


Xll  INTRODLXTION. 

Women  in  China  have  sorrows  and  disabilities, 
which  Miss  Fielde  sets  forth  with  pathetic  justness  of 
statement ;  but  they  are,  in  some  respects,  better  fitted 
to  assist  in  religious  reform  than  their  sisters  of  India 
and  Western  Asia.  They  are  not  oppressed  by  caste  : 
they  are,  in  general,  not  degraded  by  the  harem.  In 
all  Asia,  no  women,  except  the  Japanese,  are  treated 
with  more  respect  in  their  homes  than  the  Chinese. 

It  is  the  high  duty  of  the  women  of  China  and 
Japan  to  lock  hands  with  those  of  America  and  Europe, 
in  labor  for  the  social  and  religious  regeneration  of 
Asia.  i^Iiss  Fielde,  in  this  volume,  endeavors  to  place 
the  hand  of  woman  in  the  East  in  the  hand  of  woman 
in  the  West.  God  grant  to  her,  and  all  others  who 
labor  for  this  holy  end,  success  such  as  the  high  merit 
of  their  aim  deserves  !  And  may  Orient  and  Occi- 
dent, clasping  hands  around  the  globe,  draw  it  so 
closely  into  God's  bosom  as  to  make  the  sound  of  his 
pulses  the  marching-song  of  all  the  ages  ! 

JOSEPH    COOK. 
Boston,  June  24,  18S4. 


CONTENTS. 


Chapter.  Page. 

I.  The  Status  of  Woman t 

II.  Child-life  in   Cathay:   The  Story  of 

Number  Four 12 

III.  The  Extent  of  a  Great  Crime     ...  28 

IV.  Foot-binding 39 

V.  An  Espousal 48 

VI.  The  Invisible  Bridegroom 59 

VII.  Habitations 64 

yill.  The  Inconvenience  of  Heathenism  .    .  70 

IX.  Spiritism 85 

X.  The  Kitchen-god 91 

XI.  The  Origin  of  a  Fete 95 

XII.  Wooden  Judges 98 

XIII.  The  Stone  Princess  and  her  Train     .  102 

XIV.  Buddhist  Nuns 108 

XV.  Loan-associations 113 

XVI.  Our  Apothecary 117 

XVII.  Ramblings 122 

XVIII.  Native  Female  Evangelists 138 

XIX.  Biography  of  Little  Gale 151 

xiii 


XIV  CONTENTS. 

Chapter.  Pace. 

XX.   The  Autobiography  of  Aunt  Luck  .    .  157 

XXI.  The  Bamboo  Dragon 162 

XXII.  Gold  Getter 172 

XXIII.  Keepsake 177 

XXIV.  Orchid  loses  seven-tenths  of  her  Sor- 

row    187 

XXV.   Love's  Purposes 192 

XXVI.   One  Night's  Work 197 

XXVII.   The    Herb    that_gr,e\v    on    a    Pirate 

Island 200 

XXVIII.   Tapestry .  204 

XXIX.   Out  of  the  Depths 213 

XXX.  The  Mists  of  Morning 221 

XXXI.  Light  at  Eventide 229 

XXXII.   How  A   Familiar    Spirit    was    ejected 
from     a     Household.  —  The    Story 

told  by  Tolerance 238 

XXXIII.  The  Pillars  of  the  Church  at  South 

Spur 250 

XXXIV.  Language,  Literature,  and  Folk-lore.  269 


LIST   OF    ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Page. 
Listeners Frontispiece 

A  Barber 13 

Bound  Feet 39 

A  View  in  Peking 64 

A  Tea-Garden 70 

Wearing  the  Cangue 91 

A  Buddhist  Priest 108 

Beggars 113 

An  Ambulatory  Restaurant 117 

A  River-junk .  122 

Speed,  with  a  Pupil 163 

Group  of  Women 205 

A  Cooper 227 

Tolerance  and  her  Kin 239 

The  Pillars  of  the  Church  at"  South  Spur.    .    .  251 

Cotton  Spinning  and  Ginning 268 


PAGODA   SHADOWS. 


CHAPTER   I. 

THE    STATUS    OF    WOMAN. 

Life,  in  China,  is  a  stern  thing  for  both  men 
and  women  ;  but,  as  in  all  places  where  Christ 
is  not,  the  heaviest  burdens  are  put  upon  the 
weakest.  The  Chinese  woman  does  not  walk 
in  the  street  with  her  husband;  she  does  not. 
eat  with  him,  but  takes  what  is  left  after  the 
men  of  the  family  have  finished  their  meal ;  she 
has  no  legal  right  to  anything  whatever,  apart 
from  her  male  relatives.  Yet  her  condition  is, 
in  some  respects,  better  than  that  of  her  sisters 
in  neighboring  countries.  She  is  not  a  sufferer 
through  any  system  of  caste,  as  in  India ;  she 
is  not  shut  up  in  a  harem,  as  in  Turkey ;  she  is 


2  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

not  denied  the  possession  of  a  soul  and  the 
religious  privileges  of  men,  as  in  Burma ;  she 
is  not  degraded  by  polyandry,  as  in  Thibet  ; 
she  is  not  in  a  climate  which  keeps  her  bare  and 
lazy,  like  the  women  of  Siam.  Her  virtue  is  as 
carefully  guarded  and  as  highly  esteemed  as  in 
any  country  in  the  world.  Female  children  and 
elderly  women  associate  with  persons  of  the 
same  age  and  of  the  other  sex,  on  terms  of 
apparent  equality.  Girls,  though  not  kept  in 
such  seclusion  as  in  India,  do  not  go  out  alone, 
nor  appear  before  male  visitors.  The  customs 
concerning  young  ladies  are  French  rather  than 
American.  The  amount  of  freedom  that  may 
be  wise  in  social  intercourse  between  the  sexes 
must  depend  on  the  degree  of  purity  in  each. 
The  Chinese  do  the  best  they  can  under  their 
circumstances,  and  give  woman  all  the  social 
freedom  that  is  discreet  for  her  in  a  land  where 
the  cleansing  and  controlling  power  of  Chris- 
tian principle  is  unknown. 

In  a  country  where  extortion  is  the  chief  use 
of  office,  and  fear  of  it  the  main  spur  to  obedi- 
ence, neither  women  nor  men  claim  political 
rights.  But  there  is  no  law  preventing  women 
from  following  any  occupation  in  which  they 
may  be  skilled. 


THE    STATUS    OF    WOMAN.  3 

The  attainments  of  women  in  literature  are 
much  lauded  and  respected.  Practically,  such 
attainments  are  uncommon;  but  historians  refer 
with  pride  to  the  scholarship  of  a  few,  and  nov- 
elists are  fond  of  representing  their  heroines  as 
skilled  in  writing  both  poetry  and  prose.  Know- 
ing writers  about  China  tell  us  eloquently  and 
truly  of  its  system  for  the  examination  and  pro- 
motion of  scholars,  and  lead  one  to  infer  that 
education  is  nearly  universal.  In  almost  every 
village  there  is  a  private  school  in  which  a  few 
boys  are  taught  to  read  ;  but  the  proportion 
of  those  taught  is  very  small,  and  native  girls' 
schools  are  almost  unknown.  Of  the  men,  not 
more  than  one  in  a  hundred  can  read  ;  and  of 
women,  I  have  seen  few  outside  the  Christian 
mission-schools  who  could  read,  except  those 
despised  little  girls  who  act  in  theatres.  In 
the  whole  empire,  probably  not  more  than  one 
woman  in  a  thousand  knows  how  to  read. 

For  acts  of  heroism  or  for  exalted  virtue  a 
woman  may,  like  men,  have  an  honorary  portal 
erected  for  her  with  the  emperor's  sanction. 
She  may  even  aspire  to  deification,  since  many 
of  the  richest  and  most  popular  temples  are 
those  of  the  Queen  of  Heaven,  the  Protector 
of  Sailors,  and  of  other  goddesses  who  were 
once  earthly  women. 


4  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

In  one  thing  the  Chinese  woman  is  exception- 
ally blessed.  She  has  inherited  from  former 
generations  a  style  of  dress  at  once  modest, 
economical,  healthful,  and  becoming.  It  covers 
the  whole  person,  and  unlike  many  Western 
costumes,  which  make  more  noticeable  what 
they  profess  to  conceal,  it  shields  the  contour 
of  the  body  from  observation.  It  takes  but 
eight  yards  of  yard-wide  cloth  for  a  complete 
suit  of  winter  garments  ;  and  there  is  no  waste 
in  cutting  nor  in  unnecessary  appendages.  Its 
truest  economy,  however,  is  in  that  saving  of 
mental  worry  which  comes  from  always  cut- 
ting by  the  same  pattern,  and  the  obviation  of 
all  need  of  fitting.  It  allows  unrestricted  play 
to  everv  muscle,  is  of  the  same  thickness  over 
the  whole  body,  is  not  in  the  way  when  at  work, 
and  it  has  little  weight  while  it  has  all  needful 
warmth. 

Children  are  sometimes  betrothed  in  infancy, 
but  as  betrothal  is  as  binding  as  marriage,  the 
Chinese  have  learned  wisdom,  and  usually  defer 
it  until  a  year  or  two  before  the  marriage,  which 
takes  place  when  the  girl  is  about  fifteen. 

The  proposals  of  betrothal  are  made  by  the 
parents  of  the  young  man,  through  a  matrimo- 
nial asfent  or  oro-between  whose  business  it  is  to 


THE    STATUS    OF    WOMAN.  5 

know  the  history  and  expectations  of  the  mar- 
riageable people  of  the  neighborhood.  Some- 
times the  selection  of  the  bride  is  left  wholly 
to  the  go-between,  and  sometimes  she  simply 
carries  messages  between  the  parents  who  have 
formed  their  plans  previously.  The  betrothal 
is  often  made  without  either  of  the  persons 
concerned  being  aware  of  what  is  being  done 
in  their  behalf,  and  the  bride  is  brought  to  her 
husband's  home  without  ever  having  seen  him 
or  any  member  of  his  family.  Having  arrived 
there,  she  is  at  once  incorporated  in  her  father- 
in-law's  household,  and  thenceforth  has  little 
association  with  her  own  kin.  Her  happiness 
depends  more  on  the  character  of  her  mother- 
in-law  than  on  that  of  her  husband,  for  by  her 
husband's  mother  and  grandmother  she  is  wholly 
ruled.  She  is  domestic  servant  for  the  whole 
household  and  especial  waiting-maid  to  her 
mother-in-law.  Sometimes  very  strong  attach- 
ments are  formed  between  these  women.  I 
have  seen  a  woman  weep  at  being  separated 
for  a  time  from  her  mother-in-law,  and  express 
no  pleasure  when  told  that  her  husband  was 
coming  to  see  her.  On  the  other  hand,  there 
is  often  tyranny  on  the  part  of  the  elder  woman 
and  dislike  on  that  of  the  younger  one. 


6  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

The  wife  may  be  divorced  for  scolding,  bar- 
renness, lasciviousness,  leprosy,  disobedience  to 
her  husband's  parents,  and  thieving  ;  but  all 
these  causes  are  null  when  her  parents  are  not 
alive  to  receive  her  back  again.  A  man  cannot 
have  more  than  one  wife,  but  he  may  take  con- 
cubines, whose  children  are  legally  subject  to 
the  authority  of  the  wife,  as  Bilhah's  were  to 
Rachel.  Public  opinion  does  not  however  jus- 
tify the  taking  of  a  concubine  except  when  the 
wife  has  borne  no  sons.  In  regions  where  the 
people  are  very  poor,  it  is  uncommon  for  a  man 
to  have  more  than  one  wife. 

A  husband  may  beat  his  wife  to  death,  and 
go  unpunished  ;  but  a  wife  who  strikes  her  hus- 
band a  single  blow  may  be  divorced,  and  beaten 
a  hundred  blows  with  the  heavy  bamboo. 

As  long  as  a  woman  is  childless,  she  serves  ; 
as  soon  as  she  becomes  a  mother,  she  begins  to 
rule,  and  her  dominion  increases  perpetually 
with  the  number  of  her  descendants  and  the 
diminution  of  her  elders.  Married  at  fifteen, 
she  is  often  a  great-grandmother  at  sixty,  and 
is  the  head  of  a  household  of  some  dozens  of 
persons. 

So  greatly  does  the  welfare  of  the  wife  de- 
pend on  her  having  sons,  that  it  is  not  strange 


THE    STATUS    OF    WOMAN.  7 

that  they  are  her  greatest  desire,  and  her  chief 
pride.  For  them  she  will  sacrifice  all  else. 
Her  daughters  leave  her  and  become  legally 
and  truly  an  integral  part  of  another  family 
forever.  For  domestic  service,  care  in  sickness, 
help  in  old  age,  and  offerings  for  the  sustenance 
of  her  spirit  after  death,  she  must  rely  on  her 
son's  wife,  while  her  own  daughter  performs 
these  services  for  someone  else.  The  pros- 
perity of  a  Chinese  household  is  in  proportion 
to  the  number  of  its  sons. 

A  widow  usually  remains  in  her  father-in 
law's  house,  sharing  the  food  and  labor  of  the 
family,  as  much  a  part  of  the  household  as 
before  her  husband's  death.  Though  never  so 
young,  a  second  marriage  would  bring  reproach 
and  disgrace.  Unlike  an  Israelite,  she  cannot 
legally  marry  one  of  her  husband's  brothers, 
nor  any  person  of  the  same  surname.  If  child- 
less, she  may  adopt  sons,  who  may  inherit  her 
husband's  property  as  surely  as  would  his  own 
offspring  ;  but  should  she  marry  afterward,  the 
estate  reverts  to  her  husband's  brothers. 

She  is  apt  to  remain  in  widowhood  if  there 
be  rice-fields  affording  her  a  living,  unless  she 
be  driven  to  marry  by  the  persecutions  of  her 
brothers-in-law.    A  sad  case  occurred  in  1875  in 


S  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

Kit-ie.  The  widow  was  twenty-seven  years  old, 
and  had  a  son  aged  ten.  Her  husband  had  been 
dead  six  years.  His  parents  had  both  died  be- 
fore him  and  their  property  had  been  divided 
lawfully  and  equally  among  their  five  sons,  so 
that  each  owned  a  bit  of  land  and  a  room  in  the 
ancestral  home.  This  widow  continued  to  live 
in  her  husband's  house,  supporting  herself  and 
her  child  by  the  cultivation  of  the  land,  tak- 
ing care  of  the  household  gear,  and  looking 
forward  to  her  son's  manhood.  But  her  hus- 
band's brothers  wanted  the  property  and  the 
boy,  and  tried  to  persuade  her  to  enter  a  Buddh- 
ist nunnery.  She  refused,  and  was  continu- 
ally persecuted.  There  is  no  law  for  Chinese 
women  so  plain  as  is  the  law  that  they  shall 
obey  their  elders ;  and  wearied  out  by  her 
troubles,  she  at  last  visited  some  Buddhist  re- 
treats with  a  view  to  becoming  a  recluse  ;  but 
she  was  so  disgusted  by  what  she  saw,  that  she 
resolved  more  firmly  than  ever  not  to  leave  her 
home.  Just  then  she  heard  that  in  a  neighbor- 
ing village,  a  new  and  good  doctrine  was  taught, 
and  the  next  Sunday  she  went  some  miles  to 
hear  a  Christian  sermon.  On  her  return  her 
brothers-in-law  reviled  her,  saying  that  she  had 
been  away  seeking  a  husband.     The  next  day 


THE    STATUS    OF    WOMAN.  9 

they  sold  her  for  sixty-eight  dollars,  to  an  old 
man  in  another  village,  whose  wife  had  lately 
died  ;  and  as  she  refused  to  go  to  his  house, 
they  hired  a  ruffian,  for  three  dollars,  to  tie  a 
rope  around  her  and  drag  her  there.  Her  boy, 
who  had  never  before  been  separated  from  her 
by  day  nor  night,  clung  to  her  screaming,  but 
was  torn  away  and  kept  in  the  family  of  his 
uncles. 

One  source  of  great  unhappiness  to  Chinese 
women  is  in  the  law  which  forbids  the  breaking 
of  betrothal  contracts,  even  though  these  be 
made  in  the  infancy  of  the  parties  involved. 
At  one  of  the  chapels  somewhat  remote  from 
Swatow,  a  beautiful  girl  nineteen  years  old  fled 
from  her  home  to  me  and  begged  me  to  adopt 
her  as  my  daughter.  She  said  she  would  serve 
me  as  a  slave  if  I  would  but  steal  her  and 
carry  her  away  concealed  in  my  boat.  She  had 
been  betrothed  in  childhood  to  a  boy  who  had 
since  developed  a  loathsome  and  incurable  dis- 
ease ;  and  though  she  had  not  seen  him,  she 
knew  how  horrible  he  was,  and  would  die  rather 
than  marry  him.  Her  parents  were  not  willing 
to  carry  out  the  contract  they  had  made  many 
years  previously,  and  the  boy's  parents  would 
not  release  them  from  the  bargain.     Her  mother 


10  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

urged  her  to  kill  herself,  as  the  only  solution  of 
the  question.  I  sent  agents  to  negotiate  with 
the  boy's  parents,  but  could  make  no  terms 
with  them  ;  and  I  also  sought  the  officials 
and  learned  that  they  would  not  condone  the 
withholding  of  a  bride  from  even  such  a  bride- 
groom. There  was  no  legal  way  in  which  this 
child  could  be  saved  from  her  fate.  Some 
weeks  later  she  was  taken  to  the  house  of  her 
husband's  parents,  and  soon  after  I  heard  of 
her  death.  Whether  she  died  of  grief  or  by 
suicide,  I  do  not  know.  Suicide  is  not  uncom- 
mon among  brides,  nor  among  older  women. 
Some  years  ago,  seven  young  women,  at  a 
village  near  Swatow,  entered  into  a  compact 
to  drown  themselves  together.  Three  of  them 
had  been  lately  married,  and  after  spending 
the  customary  four  months  at  the  houses  of 
their  fathers-in-law,  had  come  to  visit  their  own 
mothers.  They  had  been  playmates,  and  were 
neighbors,  and  so  they  spun  and  sewed  together, 
and  rejoiced  in  their  reunion.  Mutual  confi- 
dences revealed  mutual  griefs.  One  was  mar- 
ried to  an  opium-smoker,  a  yellow  bundle  of 
bones,  vibrating  between  besotted  sleep  and 
sottish  waking.  One  was  wedded  to  a  gambler, 
who  sj^ent    his   days   and    nights    wasting   the 


THE    STATUS    OF    WOMAN.  II 

family  substance.  One  had  a  mother-in-law 
so  stern  and  cruel  that  life  was  torment  to 
those  under  her  authority.  All  three  of  the 
brides  were  miserable,  and  as  they  mingled 
their  lamentations,  their  four  unmarried  friends 
and  companions  said  to  each  other,  "This  is 
such  sorrow  as  we  must  feel  by  and  by.  How 
much  better  to  be  dead  !  "  All  agreed  in  this, 
and  entered  secretly  into  a  covenant  to  end 
their  lives  together. 

They  calculated  the  time  when  custom  would 
again  bring  the  married  ones  to  their  mothers* 
houses,  and  fixed  the  full  moon  of  the  seventh 
month  as  the  night  for  their  escape  from  life. 
When    the  time  arrived,  six  of   them  dressed 
themselves  in  festal  garments,  with  flowers  in 
their  hair,  went  hand  in  hand  in  the  moonlight 
to  the  shore,  bound  themselves  together  with  a 
rope,  and  threw  themselves  into  the  sea.     The 
seventh,  only  thirteen  years  old,  was  discovered 
through  some  noise  she  made  in  searching  for 
her  best  clothing   in    the    night,  and  was  pre- 
vented by  her  mother  from  leaving  the  house. 
From  her  the  fate  of  the  other  six  was  after- 
ward ascertained,  and  their  bodies  were  recov- 
ered and  buried  in  one  grave.     These  are  cases 
of   extreme    though    not    uncommon    unhappi- 
ness,  under  the  Chinese  marriage-system. 


CHAPTER    II. 

CHILD-LIFE    IN    CATHAY  :     THE    STORY    OF 
NUMBER    FOUR. 

Once  upon  a  time,  in  the  province  of  Kwang 
Tung,  the  department  of  Tie-Chiu,  the  district 
Kit-ie,  and  the  village  E  Lim,  lived  a  boy  named 
A  Si,  which  means  Number  Four.  There  were 
several  boys  of  the  same  name  in  the  village, 
and  they  were  so  called  because  they  were 
fourth  sons.  The  girls  interspersed  among 
them  counted  for  nothing.  If  you  asked  any 
of  the  people  how  many  children  they  had,  they 
only  mentioned  in  reply  the  number  of  their 
sons,  and  said  nothing  about  their  daughters. 

This  village,  E  Lim,  had  about  two  thousand 
inhabitants,  and  lay  near  the  foot  of  a  range 
of  mountains,  from  which  the  level  rice-fields 
stretched  away,  dotted  thickly  with  villages. 
All  the  people  in  it  were  of  the  same  surname 
and    probably    descended    from    one    ancestor ; 


A    BARBER. 


CHILD-LIFE    IN    CATHAY.  I5 

though  that  ancestor  lived  so  long  ago  that 
the  people  did  not  know  whether  they  them- 
selves were  fifth  or  fiftieth  cousins  to  each 
other.  All  the  people  in  this  village  were 
named  Heng;  and  one  need  be  very  familiar 
with  the  place  in  order  to  find  any  one  he  went 
to  search  for  in  it. 

No  matter  where  any  inhabitant  went  to  earn 
money,  he  always  left  his  wife  and  children  at 
nome,  with  the  ancestors  who  were  dearer  to 
him  than  his  wife  and  children  ;  and  however 
far  he  might  travel  or  however  long  he  might 
be  gone,  he  never  lost  the  intention  of  coming 
back  to  this  village  before  he  died  and  bringing 
with  him  all  the  money  he  might  have.  To  him, 
home  was  home  though  ever  so  homely. 

There  was  a  strong  stone  wall  around  the 
village.  The  houses  were  all  only  one  storey 
high,  and  the  streets  were  so  narrow  that  it  was 
more  convenient  for  two  persons  to  walk  in 
file  than  side  by  side  in  them.  The  pigs  and 
chickens  lived  in  the  streets,  before  the  door  of 
the  family  to  which  they  belonged,  and  went  in- 
doors at  night. 

In  the  centre  of  the  village  was  an  ancestral 
hall,  toward  the  building  of  which  all  had  con- 
tributed.    It    had    carved    and    gilded    flowers, 


l6  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

crabs  and  tigers,  ornamenting  the  bare  beams 
of  the  roof  inside,  porcelain  flowers  and  birds 
on  the  ridgepole  outside,  and  stone  lions  at  the 
door.  On  one  side  were  shelves  full  of  little 
wooden  tablets,  with  the  names  of  ancestors 
thereon.  At  festivals,  of  which  there  are 
sixty-four  in  the  Chinese  year,  people  came 
and  burned  pieces  of  gilt  paper,  called  spirit- 
money,  and  worshipped  the  tablets  of  their 
dead  grandfathers  and  grandmothers. 

On  the  outskirts  of  the  village  was  a  temple, 
as  handsomely  built  as  the  ancestral  hall,  and 
containing,  for  the  convenience  of  those  who 
preferred  one  god  to  another,  the  images  of 
several  gods.  To  this  temple  came  those  who 
were  going  on  a  journey,  those  who  had  some 
business  project  in  mind,  those  who  wanted 
some  especial  thing,  and  those  who  feared  some 
calamity,  to  make  offerings  of  meats,  cakes,  and 
fruit,  and  worship  whichever  god  they  thought 
had  greatest  influence  on  their  particular  case. 
They  put  the  food  on  dishes  in  rows  before  the 
god,  lighted  incense-sticks  to  smoke  before  him, 
and  then  got  down  on  their  hands  and  knees, 
and  knocked  their  foreheads  on  the  floor,  ex- 
plaining meanwhile  their  desires.  Then  they 
took  the  meats  offered  to  idols  and  ate  them  in 
their  own  houses. 


CHILD-LIFE    IN    CATHAY.  I/ 

The  ^cestral  hall  and  the  temple  were  the 
only  public  buildings  of  the  place.  Sometimes 
a  shed  was  put  up  in  front  of  the  temple,  as 
a  theatrical  stage.  Several  times  a  year  the 
wealthy  men  of  the  village  subscribed  a  sum  of 
sixty  or  more  dollars,  sufficient  to  pay  a  com- 
pany of  actors  to  come  there  and  play  for  three 
or  more  days  and  nights.  The  actors  wore  the 
costumes  of  ancient  times  and  had  their  gar- 
ments of  silk  and  crape  embroidered  with  gold 
thread.  They  enacted  the  ancient  history  of 
China;  and  every  one  went  to  see  them,  though 
they  spoke  in  the  court  language,  which  none 
of  the  common  people  understood.  At  the 
beginning  of  the  play,  the  chief  idol  of  the 
temple  was  carried  in  a  decorated  chair,  fol- 
lowed by  a  long  procession  of  actors  and  vol- 
unteers dressed  in  uniform,  around  the  village 
and  to  some  of  the  neighboring  villages,  and 
was  then  brought  back  to  be  the  chief  spectator 
at  the  succeeding  performances.  These  theatres 
were  the  chief  recreation  of  the  people  and  were 
attended  by  old  and  young.  Many  guests  from 
other  villages  were  entertained  at  that  time, 
and  many  came  to  the  play  bringing  their  own 
provfsion  of  food  for  the  day. 

Back  on    the   mountain   were   the  graves  of 


1 8  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

all  who  had  been  buried  from  this  village  for 
hundreds  of  years.  The  graves  were  dug  hori- 
zontally into  the  hill,  and  before  each  was 
horseshoe-shaped  masonry,  three  or  four  feet 
high  in  the  centre  and  sloping  down  to  the 
ground  at  the  ends.  Seen  from  a  distance, 
the  burying-ground  looked  like  a  great  citv. 
Those  of  the  Heng  family  who  had  died  far 
outnumbered  those  who  remained  alive.  Dur- 
ing the  second  month  of  the  Chinese  year,  all 
who  had  ancestors  buried  here  came  and  fas- 
tened gilded  paper  to  flutter  over  the  grave,  and 
worshipped  before  it.  If  any  grave  lacked  for 
three  years  these  offerings  of  paper  showing 
that  it  had  been  visited  by  the  descendants 
of  the  person  buried  in  it,  the  land  on  which 
it  was  made  could  no  longer  be  claimed  as 
private  property. 

The  people  of  E  Lim  were  engaged  chiefly 
in  farming,  getting  three  crops  a  year  from 
their  land.  The  women  seldom  went  out  of 
sight  of  their  own  houses,  and  were  bus^  cook- 
ing, spinning,  and  weaving  cotton  and  flax  for 
the  family  garments. 

When  little  Number  Four  was  born  in  this 
village,  his  parents  were  very  glad  ;  for  they 
thought  that  nobody  could  have  too  many  sons. 


CHILD-MFi:    IN    CATHAY.  I9 

He  was  wrapped  in  a  clean  rag  and  laid  in  a 
basket,  which  hung  by  two  cords  over  a  beam 
in  the  roof,  and  in  which  he  was  swung  to  sleep. 
When  he  was  one  month  old  he  had  his  head 
shaven  in  spots,  and  when  he  was  four  months 
old  it  was  shaven  clean.  As  it  was  cold  weather 
and  there  was  never  a  fire  in  the  house,  he  was 
kept  warm  by  a  little  jacket  thickly  quilted  witli 
cotton,  and  by  two  old  jackets  of  his  father's 
wrapped  around  his  legs.  Long  before  he  had 
teeth,  his  mother  fed  him  with  soft-boiled  rice, 
which  she  deftly  tucked  into  his  mouth  with  her 
fingers,  and  on  which  he  thrived  wonderfully. 
When  he  fretted  much,  he  was  put  into  a  pocket 
on  the  back  of  his  eight-year-old  sister,  and 
she  ran  about  or  swayed  to  and  fro  to  quiet 
him.  Indeed,  he  spent  the  greater  part  of  the 
first  five  years  of  his  life  on  his  mother's  or  his 
sister's  back,  sitting  in  a  scarf  tied  over  her 
shoulders,  his  arms  around  her  neck,  his  legs 
dangling  at  her  sides,  and  his  head  bobbing 
back,  looking  at  the  roof  or  the  sky.  When  he 
was  three  years  old,  the  hair  on  his  crown  was 
allowed  to  grow  long  to  be  braided  into  a  queue. 
Almost  as  soon  as  he  could  walk  and  carry  a 
basket  and  rake,  he  went  with  his  next  elder 
brother  to  gather  fuel  on  the  hills.    They  scraped 


20  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

up  the  dry  wild  grass  and  the  fallen  needles  of 
the  pine-trees, -and  everything  else  they  could 
gather  to  make  the  pot  boil.  They  had  to  sup- 
ply all  the  fuel  that  was  used  for  the  family 
cooking,  and  rarely  got  beaten  except  when 
they  failed  to  gather  enough. 

Number  Four  wore  a  bamboo  hat,  made  in 
basketwork,  lined  with  leaves,  and  as  large  as  a 
parasol.  The  remainder  of  his  costume  was  a 
short  cotton  jacket  and  very  loose  short  cot- 
ton trousers.  His  skin  was  yellow  and  his 
eyes  and  hair  jet  black. 

When  Number  Four  grew  older  'he  had  an- 
other employment,  that  of  leading  the  buffalo 
which  his  father  owned  and  which  helped  to 
work  the  land.  This  buffalo  was  larger  than  an 
American  ox ;  its  skin  was  li-ke  a  pig's,  and  cov- 
ered with  coarse,  sparse,  mouse-colored  hair ; 
and  its  horns  were  long,  sharp  and  curved.  It 
dragged  the  plough  and  harrow  over  the  rice- 
fields,  and  when  at  rest  as  well  as  when  at  work 
must  have  an  attendant  to  lead  it  from  place  to 
place  to  feed,  and  to  see  that  it  did  not  destroy 
the  grain  ;  for  there  were  no  fences  between  the 
fields.  It  was  governed  by  a  rope,  tied  to  a 
rine:  throuofh  its  nostril.  Number  Four  liked 
to  ride  home  from  the  rice-field,  on    its  back, 


CHILD-LIFE    IN    CATHAY.  21 

and  then  watch  it  while  it  rested  and  wallowed 
in  a  pool  of  muddy  water.  When  there  was 
not  enough  rain,  Four  had  also  to  help  turn  the 
chain  pump,  which  raised  water  from  the  creek 
to  the  level  of  the  rice-fields,  to  water  the  grow- 
ing crop.  This  pump  was  turned  by  the  feet, 
three  persons  stepping  together  on  the  flanges 
of  a  wheel  which  turned  the  endless  chain 
that  brought  up  the  water. 

With  all  these  occupations,  he  had  no  time  to 
go  to  school,  though  there  were  private  schools 
in  the  village,  where  he  might  have  had  instruc- 
tion by  paying  a  tuition-fee  of  two  or  three 
dollars  a  year.  His  education  was  that  which 
most  effectively  moulds  the  mind  ;  it  lay  in  the 
opinions  and  the  practices  of  those  around  him. 
He  was  never  taught  not  to  lie,  but  he  was  cer- 
tainly punished  if  he  stole,  and  so  he  learned  to 
respect  the  rights  of  property.  He  constantly 
heard  maxims  from  the  ancient  sages,  and  prov- 
erbs in  which  the  wisdom  of  generations  was 
concentrated.  He  was  taught  worldly  caution 
by,  "Don't  lace  your  boot  in  a  melon-field,  nor 
adjust  your  hat  under  a  plum-tree  ; "  reticence 
in  speech  by,  "Diseases  enter  by  the  mouth, 
misfortunes  issue  from  it,"  and  "  A  coach-and- 
four  cannot  brinfr  back  a  word  once  uttered  ;" 


22  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

modesty  of  behavior  by,  "  Who  lifts  his  feet 
high  has  put  on  boots  for  the  first  time  ; "  con- 
tentment by,  **  All  ten  fingers  can't  be  of  the 
same  length  ; "  mutual  dependence  by,  "There 
is  no  peace  for  the  mouth  when  one  tooth  is 
aching ; "  and  for  morality,  he  had  the  silver 
rule  of  Confucius,  ''Do  nothing  to  others  which 
you  would  not  have  others  do  unto  you."  In 
the  densely  crowded  quarters  where  he  lived, 
in  his  varied  and  numerous  social  relation- 
ships, and  in  the  distinct  duties  enforced  upon 
him,  he  learned  self-control,  patience,  and  dili- 
gence to  an  extent  seldom  attained  by  boys  of 
other  lands. 

Besides  attending  the  theatre  and  going 
throuo-h  the  relidous  ceremonies.  Four  did  not 
often  play,  except  in  November  when  he  flew  a 
kite.  The  kites  used  were  a  paper  star,  fish,  or 
bird,  brilliantly  painted  ;  and  the  boys  would 
send  them  up  to  fight  with  each  other  aloft. 
Some  of  them  had  a  little  wheel  attached, 
and  this,  when  turned  by  the  wind,  hummed  as 
it  went.  Sometimes  the  boys  fastened  their 
kites  by  their  tails,  and  left  them  humming  all 
nio:ht,  hisfh  in  the  air. 

When  Four  was  ten  years  old,  his  father  died. 
On  the  seventh  day  thereafter,  the  sons  bought 


CniT.n-LIFE    IN    CATHAY.  23 


> 


paper  clothing,  trunks,  and  paper  money,  im- 
ages of  all  the  articles  which  he  was  supposed 
to  require  in  the  spirit-world,  and  burned 
them  for  his  benefit.  Not  long  after,  an  uncle 
also  died  and  they  took  the  opportunity  to 
send  their  father  an  additional  quantity  of  cloth- 
ing, burning  it  with  their  uncle's  outfit. 

As  Four's  mother  was  still  young,  they  did 
not  keep  the  father's  coffin  in  the  house  till  she 
died  and  could  be  buried  with  him,  but  carried 
it  at  once  to  the  hills.  A  long  procession  fol- 
lowed it,  the  mourners  being  dressed  in  sack- 
cloth, with  white  threads  braided  in  their  hair. 
A  hired  band  of  musicians,  blowing  horns,  pre- 
ceded the  coffin  ;  and  beans,  peas,  and  grain 
were  thrown  into  the  grave,  before  the  coffin 
was  lowered.  The  place  for  the  grave  and  the 
day  for  the  funeral,  had  been  previously  selected 
by  a  wizard,  who  was  supposed  to  be  able  to 
discover  what  was  lucky  in  such  matters. 

Shortly  after  this,  a  great  man  from  whom 
the  father  had  borrowed  money,  came  and 
demanded  immediate  payment.  The  family 
were  in  great  distress,  not  having  the  means 
to  pay  the  debt  without  selling  the  land  on 
which  their  support  depended.  After  much 
trouble,   and   many   threats   from   the   creditor, 


24  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

the  mother  decided  to  accept  the  offer  of  a  rich 
relative  to  whom  she  had  applied  for  help,  and 
for  ninety  dollars  let  him  have  Number  Four 
for  his  own  son.  Four  and  his  mother  and 
brothers  all  cried  over  it  ;  but  on  what  was 
found  to  be  a  fortunate  day  by  casting  lots  in 
the  temple,  he  went  away,  to  be  his  mother's 
child  no  more.  Papers  of  legal  sale  were  made 
out,  and  his  mother  and  brothers  bound  them- 
selves never  to  make  any  claims  of  relationship 
upon  him.  Even  if  they  became  rich,  they 
could  never  offer  to  buy  him  back  again.  His 
elder  sister  had  been  married  long  before,  and 
the  betrothal  money  spent.  His  younger  sister 
was  then  betrothed  for  ten  dollars,  and  went  at 
once  to  be  brought  up  by  the  mother  of  her 
future  husband.  So  the  hundred  dollars  due 
to  the  hard  creditor  was  made  up,  and  the 
mother  had  three  boys  left  to  support  her  in 
old  age. 

A  Si,  in  his  new  home,  was  no  longer  Num- 
ber Four.  His  name  was  changed  to  Kai  Bun, 
which  means  "  an  aspirant  in  literature  ; "  and 
his  estate  was  so  much  improved,  that  it  was 
only  at  times  that  he  remembered  his  former 
home  with  regret.  He  here  had  one  elder 
brother,  who  was  also  an  adopted  child  ;  for  this 


CHILD-LIFE    IN    CATHAY.  25 

couple  had  no  children  of  their  own,  and  must 
have  some  one  to  rear  up  as  theirs,  and  to  make 
offerings  for  their  welfare  in  the  spirit-world 
after  their  death.  Before  this,  Four  had  eaten 
boiled  sweet-potatoes  three  times  a  day  ;  but 
now  he  had  rice,  with  fish,  vegetables,  pork,  and 
poultry.  He  wore  shoes  with  wooden  soles  an 
inch  thick,  and  nankeen  stockings,  with  his  trou- 
sers tucked  in  at  the  top  and  fastened  there  by 
bright  blue  silk  garters.  His  jacket  was  now 
long  and  fine,  and  he  wore  a  black  satin  cap. 
He  also  began  to  go  to  school.  In  reading,  he 
began  at  what  you  would  call  the  back* of  the 
book,  and  read  down  the  columns  of  letters, 
beginning  at  the  upper  right-hand  corner  of 
the  page  and  ending  at  the  lower  left-hand 
corner.  His  teacher  first  read  a  few  columns 
to  him,  and  Kai  Bun  repeated  these  after  him. 
Then  he  went  to  his  seat  and  studied  aloud  at 
the  top  of  his  voice,  as  all  the  other  boys  did, 
until  he  had  learned  the  lesson.  Then  he  went 
and  turned  his  back  toward  his  teacher  and  re- 
peated his  lesson  from  memory.  In  this  way  he 
went  over  the  whole  book.  When  he  was  older, 
the  meaning  would  be  explained  to  him.  He 
learned  also  to  write,  beginning  by  putting  his 
copy  under  thin  paper  and  following  it  with  a 


26  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

little  brush  wet  with  ink.  After  he  had  learned 
to  hold  his  brush  and  guide  his  hand  well,  he 
wrote  the  copy  from  memory,  Reading  and 
writing  would  be  his  only  studies,  no  matter 
how  many  years  he  remained  at  school. 

When  Kai  Bun  was  fourteen,  he  for  the  first 
time  saw  a  foreign  lady  in  his  village.  Some  of 
the  children  screamed  and  hid  when  they  saw 
her  ;  but  a  great  many  more  followed  her  to 
the  house  where  she  sat  down,  and  gazed  at 
her  with  wide-open  eyes,  while  she  talked  and 
answered  questions.  She  had  blue  eyes  and 
brown  hair,  and  looked  very  strange  to  them. 
Some  of  them  asked  her  if  she  was  born  with 
blue  eyes  or  whether  her  eyes  had  faded  out  ; 
some  asked  her  if  she  could  see  at  all ;  and 
others  asked  if  with  such  eyes  she  could  see 
through  a  wall.  Some  asked  if  all  the  people 
in  the  country  she  came  from  had  red  hair ; 
and  some,  if  she  painted  her  hands,  as  well  as 
her  face,  to  make  them  white.  Some  wanted 
to  know  if  there  were  rice  and  potatoes  and 
trees  in  her  country  ;  and  some  inquired  whether 
her  country  was  farther  off  than  the  one  where 
all  the  inhabitants  were  women,  and  if  it  were 
really  true  that  there  were  countries  and  peo- 
ple at   the   bottom   of  the  sea.     Another,  who 


CHILD-LIFE    IN    CATHAV.  2/ 

had  heard  of  Great  Britain,  remarked  that  in 
Western  lands  they  had  women  for  their  rulers. 
She  had  some  books  with  her,  and  as  Kai  Bun 
could  read,  she  lent  him  one,  promising  to  make 
him  a  present  of  another  when  he  should  have 
read  the  first  all  through. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE  EXTENT  OF  A  GREAT  CRIME. 

If  we  would  truly  help  people,  we  must  know 
their  real  need.  Not  till  we  comprehend  their 
mode  of  thought,  understand  their  peculiar 
temptations,  gauge  the  pressure  of  their  sur- 
roundings upon  them,  and  apprehend  their  act- 
ual sorrows  and  sins,  can  we  guide,  console,  or 
strengthen  them.  We  must  know  just  where 
the  wound  is  if  we  would  apply  aright  the 
balm. . 

In  endeavoring  to  form  for  their  good  an 
intimate  acquaintance  with  Chinese  women,  I 
came  upon  a  fearful  fact  in  their  lives.  Heathen 
women,  with  no  flush  of  shame,  no  sense  of 
guilt,  mentioned  to  me  in  casual  conversa- 
tion their  having  killed  several  of  their  own 
children.  Christian  women,  with  consciences 
quickened  by  the  gospel,  came  to  me  in  tears, 
asking  me  to  pray  that  this  crime  in  their  past 
28 


THE  EXTENT  OF  A  GREAT  CRIME.      29 

lives  might  be  blotted  out  from  God's  book  of 
remembrance.  In  my  journeys  through  the 
country,  I  frequently  saw  the  bodies  of  dead 
infants  and  was  told  that  they  were  thrown 
away  when  living,  because  their  parents  did 
not  want  them.  Wishing  to  know  to  what  ex- 
tent infanticide  was  practised,  and  what  the 
comparative  rate  of  mortality  among  children 
of  the  two  sexes,  I  wrote  to  several  ladies  in 
other  parts  of  China,  asking  them  to  assist  me 
in  collating  statistics  upon  these  points.  I 
am  indebted  to  their  careful  investigations  and 
reliable  replies  for  the  information  I  possess 
concerning  parts  of  China  other  than  Swatow. 

At  Chefoo,  of  twenty-five  aged  mothers,  none 
confessed  to  having  destroyed  any  children  ;  but 
none  among  them  had  reared  more  than  three 
girls,  and  only  two  of  them  had  reared  more 
than  two  girls.  At  Tung  Cho,  near  Peking,  of 
twenty-five  mothers,  four  had  destroyed  seven 
daughters.  The  resident  missionary  lady  who 
inquired  into  this  subject  says  :  — 

*'  Among  our  personal  acquaintances  there  are  few 
whose  testimony  I  should  rely  on,  on  account  of  their 
fearing  to  be  questioned,  and  of  their  superstition  that 
having  their  names  written  may  bring  bad  luck.  These 
statistics  have  been  obtained  from  our  church-members 


30  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

principally,  and  are  concerning  themselves  or  their  near 
acquaintances.  They  could  not  be  used  as  representing 
the  percentage  of  infanticide  in  this  region.  To  say  that 
four  women  in  twenty-five  destroy  their  female  offspring 
would  be  untrue.  I  do  not  believe  that  one  in  a  hundred 
do  so,  counting  all  classes,  even  the  beggars.  The  crime 
is  known  :  compared  with  the  same  in  Christian  lands,  it 
is  frequent.  Heathenism  is  selfish  and  cruel  everywhere, 
and  so  long  as  women  lead  the  wholly  dependent  lives  to 
which  they  are  condemned  in  China,  there  will  be  many 
whose  poverty,  or  whose  desire  for  male  posterity,  will 
lead  them  to  consider  a  daughter  a  burden  rather  than  a 
comfort,  and  who  in  their  hour  of  bitter  disappointment 
will  murder  the  child.  As  such  a  crime  is  never  punished 
by  the  civil  authorities  here,  the  helpless  little  ones  are 
wholly  at  the  mercy  of  their  mothers'  impulses.  But 
though  we  do  occasionally  hear  of  such  cases,  the  crime, 
as  a  great  and  widespread  evil,  does  not  exist  here." 

At  Kalgan,  of  seven  mothers  whose  circum- 
stances were  known,  five  had  destroyed  no  chil- 
dren, one  had  destroyed  four,  and  one  had 
destroyed  two.  At  Hankow,  of  twenty-five 
women,  eight  had  been  guilty  of  infanticide, 
and  had  among  them  destroyed  eighteen  daugh- 
ters. At  Ningpo,  I  was  told  that  infanticide 
is  in  later  times  seldom  practised.  In  earlier 
days  it  was  a  common  thing,  but  the  govern- 
ment authorities  stopped  it  when  they  found 
that  wives  were  becoming  scarce.     Since  then, 


THE    EXTENT    OF    A    GREAT    CRIME.  3 1 

companies  have  been  formed  who  make  it  their 
business  to  provide  for  destitute  girls,  paying 
their  parents  a  certain  sum  for  caring  for  them 
up  to  a  marriageable  age.  Some  poor  families 
sell  their  girls  while  yet  a  few  years  old,  and 
the  buyer  trains  them  and  sells  them  again  for 
inferior  wives.  There  are  two  or  three  districts 
in  this  region  where  infanticide  used  to  be  very 
common.  From  one  of  these  came  a  blind 
woman,  who  is  now  a  useful  Christian.  She 
lost  her  sight  when  about  three  years  of  age  ; 
and  she  thinks  it  must  have  been  her  step 
mother,  not  her  own  mother,  who,  after  she 
became  blind,  threw  her  into  the  canal  once, 
twice,  yea,  thrice,  hoping  thus  to  put  her  out 
of  the  way-  She  each  time  felt  her  way  up  to 
the  bank  and  was  helped  out.  The  last  time 
she  was  taken  to  her  grandmother's  to  be  cared 
for,  and  afterwards  to  an  aunt's,  going  farther 
and  farther  from  her  original  home  till  she 
reached  Ningpo,  at  a  distance  of  three  or  four 
hundred  miles,  where  she  lived  by  begging 
until  taken  up  by  the  missionaries. 

At  Soochow,  it  is  said  that  female  infants  are 
but  rarely  murdered.  There  are  two  very  large 
and  well-endowed  foundling  asylums  in  the 
city  and  all  mothers  who  do  not  want  to  bring 


32  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

up  their  daughters  send  them  to  an  asylum. 
Ten  or  twelve  children  are  often  brought  at  a 
time  from  the  country  around  Soochow,  gath- 
ered up  in  baskets,  and  brought  in  like  chick- 
ens. Both  boys  and  girls  are  taken  in  at  the 
asylums,  and  are  farmed  out  to  persons  who 
offer  to  take  care  of  them,  and  who  are  paid 
about  a  dollar  a  month  for  their  trouble.  When 
the  children  are  old  enough  to  be  put  to  work, 
or  to  learn  a  trade,  they  are  recalled  by  the 
Board  of  Managers,  and  provided  with  an  oc- 
cupation. Many  poor  men  get  their  wives 
from  among  the  foundlings,  because  they  need 
pay  but  a  small  sum  for  them.  Girls  are  also 
adopted  into  families,  and  are  taken  as  servants  ; 
and  afterwards  husbands  are  procured  for  them. 
At  one  of  these  asylums,  any  woman  too  poor 
to  provide  clothing  for  her  infant  may  apply  for, 
and  will  be  supplied  with,  a  complete  baby  out- 
fit, and  this  mitigation  of  the  expense  encour- 
ages her  to  save  the  child  alive. 

In  the  Province  of  Fokien,  the  Governor  has 
recently  issued  a  proclamation  forbiddmg  in- 
fanticide, and  metes  severe  punishment  to  the 
offender.  It  is  said  that  in  some  of  the  dis 
tricts  where  this  crime  was  formerly  rife,  it  now 
scarcely  exists.     Newly  born  female  children 


THE  EXTENT  OF  A  GREAT  CRIME.      33 

readily  bring  from  one  to  three  dollars,  and  are 
sold  to  men  who  make  a  business  of  peddling 
babies.  Twenty-one  mothers  in  Foochow  and 
its  vicinity,  whose  domestic  history  was  ascer- 
tained, had  murdered,  sold,  or  given  away  forty- 
six  daughters.  One  remarkable  case  was  found 
in  which  a  mother  reared  six  daughters  ;  and  the 
reason  she  gave  for  the  singular  fact  was  that 
her  husband  worked  at  a  distance  and  was 
never  at  home  when  the  girls  were  born,  and 
though  he  was  very  angry  when  he  found  their 
lives  had  been  spared,  he  let  them  live  because 
the  mother  loved  them. 

In  the  city  of  Amoy  there  is  a  foundling  hos- 
pital, and  infanticide  is  said  to  be  much  less 
common  than  in  the  adjoining  country.  Of 
twenty-five  mothers  at  Amoy,  none  had  reared 
more  than  two  daughters ;  and  five  had  de- 
stroyed eleven  at  their  birth,  while  thirteen 
had  been  sold  or  given  away.  At  Canton, 
where  there  are  also  native  foundling  hospitals, 
fifteen  women  had  destroyed  thirteen  girls. 

A  Roman-Catholic  priest  who  had  lived 
twenty-one  years  in  Peking  told  me  that  during 
the  year  1882,  seven  hundred  little  castaway 
girls  had  been  gathered  up  alive  from  the  ruts 
and  pits  of  the  street,  and  brought  in  by  the 


34  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

messengers  sent  out  on  such  service  from  the 
Roman- Catholic  foundling  asylum  of  that  city  ; 
and  that  during  the  previous  ten  years,  over 
eight  thousand  infants  had  thus  been  found 
and  sheltered  by  the  same  institution. 

At  Swatow,  where  I  took  accounts  from 
forty  women,  each  answering  for  herself  alone, 
and  each  over  fifty  years  of  age,  I  found  that 
the  forty  had  among  them  destroyed  seventy- 
eight  of  their  daughters.  The  heathen  women 
seldom  allow  more  than  two  of  their  girls  to 
live.  The  rearing  of  more  than  three  is  a 
marked  exception  to  the  rule.  The  decision 
whether  any  more  girls  are  wanted  is  usually 
made  in  the  family  before  the  child's  birth,  and 
an  undesired  girl  is  stifled  by  the  mother,  father, 
or  grandmother,  as  soon  as  her  sex  is  known. 
A  neighbor  of  one  of  my  Bible-women  bore 
six  daughters  successively,  and  smothered  five 
of  them.  When  the  sixth  came,  she  said  it 
was  always  the  same  girl  coming  back  and  she 
would  no  longer  endure  her.  She  wanted  boys 
and  would  see  whether  that  girl  could  be  de- 
terred from  again  presenting  herself.  She  cut 
the  child  into  minute  particles,  and  scattered 
these  over  the  rice-fields. 

The  murder  of  other  than  newlv  born  infants 


THE  EXTENT  OF  A  GREAT  CRIME.      35 

is   rare,  but  I  know  an   instance  in  which  the 
mother  of    a    girl    three   months  old  died,  and 
the  father,  finding  the  care  and  support  of  tlie 
child  difficult,  took  it  to  the  beach  and  left  it 
till  the  tide  washed  it  away  to  sea.     That  such 
a  thing  might  be  done  in  any  land  is  credible. 
But  that  all  the  neighbors  and  relatives  should 
Know  and  acquiesce  in  such  an  act  ;    that  the 
man   who  did    it  should   not    lose    social    caste 
therefor;    and    that    the  drowning   of   a    three- 
month's-old  girl  should  excite  no  more  comment 
than  the  drowning  of   a  kitten,  in  a  village  of 
three  thousand  people,  is  marvellous  to  anyone 
who  does  not  know  how  lightly  the  lives  of  Chi- 
nese girls  are  esteemed.     I  know  of   but    two 
foundling    hospitals    within    fifty    miles    from 
Swatow,  though  there  may  be  others.     At  one 
of  these,  from  one  to  two  hundred  infant  girls 
are  taken  in  during  a  year.     They  are  at  once 
given  out  to  nurse,  four  cents  a  day  being  paid 
the  woman  who    nurses   one   of  them.     When 
twelve  or  more  days  old,  they  are,  if  strong  and 
well,    put    into    baskets    and    carried   out  by  a 
man  who  receives  twenty  cents  a  day  for  hawk- 
mg  them  in  the  villages  around.     Any  woman 
who  wishes   to   do   so,  examines  the  hawker's 
baskets,  selects  a  daughter-in-law  from  among 


36  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

the  contents,  and  the  hospital  is  relieved  from 
further  care  of  the  child. 

Walking  one  nightfall  near  Go  Chan,  I  met  a 
man  carrying  two  large  covered  hampers  at  the 
two  ends  of  a  pole  over  his  shoulder.  Wailing 
voices  issued  from  the  hampers,  and  I  asked 
the  man  to  let  me  look  at  his  burden.  He  lifted 
the  covers,  and  I  found  that  his  wares  consisted 
of  three  young  infants,  lying  on  their  backs, 
cold,  hungry,  and  miserable.  This  baby-ped 
ler  had  taken  six  little  girls  out  that  morning 
to  sell.  He  had  disposed  of  only  half  his  stock 
and  was  going  home  with  the  remainder.  He 
said  he  was  tired  and  had  yet  a  long  way  to  go, 
and  that,  if  I  would  take  the  lot,  I  might  have 
all  three  of  the  girls  for  a  dollar. 

In  conversation  with  forty  different  women, 
each  alone,  and  with  no  reason  for  telling  me 
other  than  the  truth,  and  all  over  fifty  years  of 
age,  I  learned  that  the  forty  women  had  borne 
a  hundred  and  eighty  three  sons  and  a  hundred 
and  seventy  five  daughters.  Of  these  sons,  a 
hundred  and  twenty-six  had  lived  to  be  more 
than  ten  years  old  ;  while  only  fifty-three  of  the 
daughters  had  reached  that  age.  The  question 
at  once  arises,  whether  there  is  not  a  large  sur- 
plus male  population  in  this  region,  and  whether 


THE  EXTENT  OF  A  GREAT  CRIME.     37 

there  are  not  many  men  unable  to  find  wives. 
Nearly  all  the  adult  men  are  married,  though 
the  betrothal  money  averages  forty  dollars  and 
the  expenses  of  a  wedding  are  considerable. 
The  population  is  so  dense,  that  even  though 
the  land  is  divided  into  small  fields  worked  by 
their  owners  and  yielding  three  crops  a  year, 
the  maximum  number  that  can  live  on  its  prod- 
ucts is  far  exceeded.  The  women  do  not  2:0 
abroad,  and  the  number  of  little  girls  allowed 
to  live  is  regulated  by  the  number  that  can  be 
fed.  The  custom  of  binding  their  feet  makes 
them  the  more  useless  and  therefore  the  more 
subject  to  murder.  The  men  may  emigrate 
and  by  their  earnings  abroad  help  support  their 
parents.  The  forty  women  mentioned  had  sons 
abroad  equal  in  number  to  the  daughters  they 
had  destroyed,  and  a  large  proportion  of  these 
sons  were  sending  money  to  their  parents. 

Combining  the  statistics  gathered  by  mis- 
sionary ladies  in  the  above-mentioned  places 
with  those  I  have  myself  collected,  I  find  that 
a  hundred  and  sixty  Chinese  women,  all  over 
fifty  years  of  age,  had  borne  six  hundred  and 
thirty-one  sons  and  five  hundred  and  thirty- 
eight  daughters.  Of  the  sons,  three  hundred 
and  sixty-six,  or  nearly  sixty  per  cent,  had  lived 


38  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

more  than  ten  years  ;  while  of  the  daughters 
only  two  hundred  and  five,  or  thirty-eight  per 
cent,  had  lived  ten  years.  The  hundred  and 
sixty  women  had,  according  to  their  own  state- 
ments, destroyed  a  hundred  and  fifty-eight  of 
their  daughters  ;  but  none  had  ever  destroyed  a 
boy.  As  only  four  of  these  women  had  reared 
more  than  three  girls,  the  probability  is  that 
the  number  of  infanticides  confessed  to  is  con 
siderably  below  the  truth.  I  have  occasionally 
been  told  by  a  woman,  that  she  had  forgotten 
just  how  many  girls  she  had  had  more  than 
she  wanted.  The  greatest  number  of  infanti- 
cides owned  to  by  any  one  woman  is  eleven. 

The  causes  of  this  crime  are  two,  poverty 
and  superstition.  The  acceptance  of  Chris- 
tianity brings  about  a  cessation  from  child- 
murder,  because  it  destroys  the  superstition 
which  is  its  cause,  leading  the  parents  to  de- 
pend on  God,  not  on  male  descendants,  for 
comfort  in  the  life  to  come.  It  does  not  obvi- 
ate the  poverty,  but  it  presents  life  in  a  new 
aspect,  as  an  opportunity  for  acquiring  moral 
and  spiritual  perfection  ;  and  for  this  the  sad- 
dest life  often  furnishes  the  best  opportunity. 


BOUND  feet;  bare  aud   shod. 


CHAPTER    IV. 


FOOT-BINDING. 


The  process  of  binding,  the  style  of  shoe 
worn,  and  the  social  condition  of  the  victim, 
vary  considerably  in  different  parts  of  the  em- 
pire. The  rich  bind  the  feet  of  their  daughters 
at  six  or  eight  years  ;  the  poor,  at  thirteen  or 
fourteen.  They  are  seldom  bound  later  than  at 
fifteen  ;  though  a  case  is  known  in  which  poor 
parents,  who  had  sold  their  daughter  as  a  slave, 

39 


40  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

became  rich,  reclaimed  her,  and  bound  her  feet 
at  twenty. 

The  appliances  for  binding  include  no  iron 
nor  wooden  shoe.  Only  long  strips  of  firm, 
flexible  cloth  are  used.  We  are  often  asked 
to  admire  the  moulding  power  of  soft  influences  : 
perhaps  we  too  seldom  consider  that  they  are 
as  powerful  for  evil  as  for  good.  I  once  saw  a 
sturdy  tree  inwreathed  and  clasped  to  death  by 
a  fragile  vine. 

f  The  bandages  used  in  misshaping  the  feet 
are  woven  in  small  hand-looms,  and  are  about 
two  inches  wide  and  ten  feet  long.  One  end 
of  the  bandage  is  laid  on  the  inside  of  the 
instep  ;  thence  it  is  carried  over  the  four  small 
toes,  drawing  them  down  upon  the  sole ;  then 
it  passes  under  the  foot,  over  the  instep,  and 
around  the  heel,  drawing  the  heel  and  toe 
nearer  together,  making  a  bulge  on  the  instep, 
and  a  deep  niche  in  the  sole  underneath  ;  thence 
it  follows  its  former  course  until  the  bandage  is 
all  applied,  and  the  last  end  is  sewn  down  firmly 
on  the  underlying  cloth.  Once  a  month  or 
oftener,  the  feet,  with  the  bandages  upon  them, 
are  put  into  a  bucket  of  hot  water  and  soaked. 
Then  the  bandages  are  removed,  the  dead  skin 
is  rubbed  off,  the   foot  is   kneaded  more  fully 


FOOT-BINDING.  4 1 

into  the  desired  shape,  pulverized  ahim  is  laid 
on,  and  clean  bandages  quickly  affixed.  If  the 
bandages  are  long  left  off,  the  blood  again  cir- 
culates in  the  feet,  and  the  rebinding  is  very 
painful.  The  pain  is  least  when  the  feet  are  so 
firmly  and  so  constantly  bound  as  to  be  be- 
numbed by  the  pressure  of  the  bandages. 

It  not  infrequently  happens  that  the  flesh 
becomes  putrescent  during  the  process  of  bind- 
ing, and  portions  slough  off  from  the  sole. 
Sometimes  a  toe  or  more  drops  off.  In  this 
case  the  feet  are  much  smaller  than  they  could 
else  be  made,  and  elegance  is  secured  at  the 
cost  of  months  of  suffering.  The  dolor  ordi- 
narily continues  about  a  year,  then  gradually 
diminishes,  till  at  the  end  of  two  years  the 
feet  are  dead  and  painless. 

During  this  time  the  victim  of  fashion  sleeps 
only  on  her  back,  lying  crosswise  the  bed,  with 
her  feet  dangling  over  the  side,  so  that  the 
edge  of  the  bedstead  presses  on  the  nerves 
bej;iind  the  knees  in  such  a  way  as  to  dull  the 
pain  somewhat.  There  she  swings  her  feet 
and  moans,  and  even  in  the  coldest  weather 
cannot  wrap  herself  in  a  coverlet,  because  every 
return  of  warmth  to  her  limbs  increases  the 
aching.  The  sensation  is  said  to  be  like  that 
of  having  the  joints  punctured  with  needles.^ 


42  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

While  the  feet  are  being  formed  they  are 
useless,  and  their  owner  moves  about  the  room 
to  which  she  is  confined,  by  putting  her  knees 
on  two  stools,  so  that  her  feet  will  not  touch 
the  floor,  and  throwing  her  weight  upon  one 
knee  at  a  time,  while  she  moves  the  stools 
alternately  forward  with  her  hands. 

When  the  feet  are  completely  remodeled, 
there  is  a  notch  in  the  middle  of  the  sole,  deep 
enough  to  conceal  a  silver  dollar  put  in  edge- 
wise across  the  foot.  The  four  small  toes  are 
so  twisted  that  their  ends  may  be  seen  on  the 
Inside  of  the  foot,  below  the  ankle;  and  the  bro- 
ken and  distorted  bones  of  the  middle  of  the 
toot  are  pressed  into  a  mass  where  the  instep 
should  be.  The  shape  is  like  a  hen's  head,  the 
big  toe  representing  the  bill.  There  is  little 
beside  skin  and  bone  below  the  knee.  The  foot 
cannot  be  stood  upon  without  its  bandages,  and 
can  never  be  restored  to  its  natural  shape.  It 
is  a  frightful  and  fetid  thing.  No  bound-footed 
woman  ever  willingly  lets  her  bare  feet  be  seen, 
even  by  those  who  are  likewise  maimed.  She 
wears  little  cotton  shoes  when  abed,  putting 
as  it  were  her  night-cap  on  her  feet. 

The  sepulchre  for  these  mummied  feet  is  very 
gorgeous.     The  bandages  and  alum-powder  are 


FOOT-BINDING.  43 

always  worn  ;  but  the  bandages  are  shortened 
one-half  their  length,  and  fine  black  ones  are 
often  put  on  over  the  white  ones.  Embroidered 
satin  shoes,  with  brightly  painted  heels,  are 
worn,  and  a  neat  pantalet  covers  all  but  the 
toe.  What  is  visible  appears  to  be  the  petal 
of  a  field-lily. 

Even  outside  barbarians  often  admire  this 
fairy  foot.  Yet  the  poet  cannot  say  of  the 
owner, 

"  Her  foot  so  light,  her  step  so  true, 
Scarce  from  the  harebell  brushed  the  dew." 

Her  dainty  feet  toddle  and  clump,  and  her 
gait  is  exactly  that  of  one  walking  on  the  points 
of  the  heels.  Though  the  Chinese  poet  com- 
pares her  motion  to  that  of  the  swaying  \villow, 
one  never  sees  among  Chinese  women  one  who 
walks  gracefully.  Those  who  have  natural  feet 
imitate  the  vacillating  hobble  of  the  bound- 
footed,  verifying  the  Italian  proverb,  "  If  you 
always  live  with  those  who  are  lame,  you  will 
yourself  learn  to  limp." 

In  walking,  the  small-footed  lean  on  a  child's 
shoulder  or  carry  a  supportmg  staff.  Those 
who  can  afford  it,  have  large-footed  female 
slaves  who    carry  them    about  on  their  backs, 


44  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

for  short  distances.  I  have  been  to  visit  a 
wealthy  family  and  had  the  neighboring  ladies 
come  in  to  see  me,  each  riding  pick-a-back  on 
her  slave.  A  lady,  whose  beautiful  house  I 
went  to  see,  was  as  gracious  a  hostess  as  could 
be  found  in  any  land  ;  but  her  feet  were  so  tiny 
that  the  longest  walk  she  could  take  was  from 
one  room  to  the  next,  and  she  was  obliged  to 
sit  down  after  walking  a  few  steps  on  her  marble 
floors.  I  have  seen  those  whose  feet  were  but 
two  inches  long  upon  the  sole,  and  their  shoes 
were  no  larger  than  those  of  a  young  infant. 
Only  the  very  rich  can  afford  to  be  so  helpless 
as  such  feet  render  their  possessor,  and  there 
are  not  many  who  are  very  rich. 

Middle-class  women,  with  bound  feet,  some- 
times walk  four  or  five  miles  in  a  day.  Many 
whose  feet  are  apparently  bound  have  naturally 
shaped  feet,  merely  dressed  in  the  style  of  the 
bound-footed.  In  some  villages,  the  girls  have 
their  feet  slightly  bound  just  before  marriage, 
and  unbind  them  soon  after  the  wedding  fes- 
tivities are  past.  In  some  hamlets  the  women 
are  all  large-footed,  and  wade  streams  and  walk 
long  distances  bare-footed  ;  but  on  approaching 
a  town,  and  on  gala  days,  they  do  up  their  feet, 
more  or  less  successfully,  in  the  aristocratic 
stvle. 


FOOT-BINDING.  45 

The  Hakka  women  do  not  bind  their  feet, 
and  lead  a  vigorous  physical  life,  working 
chiefly  in  the  open  air.  The  better  custom  of 
these  people  influences  those  living  on  their 
borders,  and  the  country  women  in  their  vicinity 
do  not  bind  their  feet.  On  their  side  of  Tie 
Chiu,  among  those  who  live  in  hamlets  and 
small  villages,  the  custom  is  slowly  dying  out. 
In  one  cluster  of  hamlets  where  twenty  years 
ago  every  girl's  feet  were  bound,  no  one  now 
binds  a  daughter's  feet.  This  laxity  is  unfor- 
tunately confined  to  the  country  villages  in 
the  neighborhood  of  the  Hakkas.  In  the  cities 
and  large  towns,  all  women  except  slaves  and 
bond-servants  have  deformed  feet. 

Foot-binding  is  not  so  much  a  matter  of  class 
as  of  locality.  Near  the  coast,  even  in  the 
farmsteads  and  among  the  most  indigent,  every 
woman  has  bound  feet.  It  is  not  a  voucher  for 
respectability,  for  the  vilest  are  often  bound- 
footed.  Neither  is  it  a  sign  of  wealth,  for  in 
those  places  where  the  custom  prevails,  the 
poorest  follow  it.  Inferior  wives,  unless  they 
come  as  bond-maids  into  the  household,  are 
usually  bound-footed  women.  Taking  all  China 
together,  probably  nine-tenths  of  the  women 
have  bound  feet. 


46  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

The  evils  that  accrue  from  this  custom  are 
very  great.  It  makes  cripples  of  nearly  halt 
the  population  and  adds  immensely  to  the  mis- 
ery of  the  poverty-stricken  multitudes.  It  dis- 
ables women  from  supporting  themselves  and 
from  caring  for  their  children,  and  is  one  of  the 
causes  of  the  great  prevalence  of  infanticide. 
It  renders  women  too  weak  to  keep  their  houses 
clean,  and  makes  their  homes  filthy  and  cheer- 
less. It  incapacitates  woman  for  travelling, 
and  keeps  her  and  her  thoughts  in  the  nar- 
rowest of  spheres.  Why  any  should  follow  so 
pernicious  a  practice  is  one  of  the  mysteries  of 
human  perversity.  There  is  no  law  that  women 
shall  bind  their  feet,  and  the  women  of  the 
imperial  palace  at  Peking  are  all  natural-footed. 
The  origin  of  the  custom  is  unknown,  lost 
in  the  mists  of  antiquity. 

The  only  reason  that  I  have  heard  in  favor 
of  it,  aside  from  the  common  one  that  women 
would  be  laughed  at  and  despised  if  their  feet 
were  like  men's,  was  given  me  by  a  man,  who 
said  that  it  was  necessary  that  women's  feet 
should  be  bound,  else  they  would  be  as  strong 
as  their  husbands  and  then  they  could  not  be 
kept  in  subjection  by  beating. 

But  the  men  generally  offer  no  greater  oppo- 


FOOT-BINDING.  47 

sition  to  a  departure  from  the  established  fashion 
than  do  the  women  themselves.  For  a  Chinese 
woman  the  greatest  of  sorrows  is  that  of  having 
no  sons  :  the  next  to  the  greatest  is  that  of  be- 
ing unlike  her  neighbors.  The  smallest  feet  are 
made  by  those  who  determine  to  be  elegant  at 
any  cost,  ana  these  draw  their  own  foot-liga- 
tures tighter  than  any  one  else  would  draw 
them.  Religion  is  not  the  only  sentiment 
which  has  its  martyrs. 


CHAPTER   V. 

AN    ESPOUSAL. 

The  Chinese  say  that  a  woman  marries,  while 
a  man  takes  a  wife.  Being  at  Kui-Su,  a  town 
forty  miles  west  of  Swatow^  where  no  foreign 
lady  had  ever  before  been,  I  was  so  fortunate 
as  to  make  the  acquaintance  of  the  ladies  of 
one  of  the  families  in  the  place,  and  was  in- 
vited by  them  to  a  wedding.  As  a  foreigner 
seldom  has  the  opportunity  to  see  a  purely 
pagan  family  throughout  a  domestic  festivity 
like  this,  I  was  glad  to  accept  the  invitation. 

During  the  previous  evening  there  was  a 
puppet-show,  costing  two  dollars,  on  a  little 
staee  before  the  door  of  the  house  of  the  bride- 
groom's  father.  It  was,  like  all  Chinese  theat- 
rical performances,  free  to  all  who  chose  to 
come  and  look,  being  called  and  paid  for  by  the 
host.  Indoors,  racks  on  two  sides  of  the  main 
room  were  filled  with  baskets  holding  cakes, 
48 


AN    ESPOUSAL.  49 

which  the  family  and  its  relatives  had  for  many 
days  been  employed  in  makin^i;.  A  red  silk 
curtain  was  suspended  ai;ainst  the  wall  opposite 
the  chief  door,  while  scrolls  having  congratula- 
tory sentences  written  upon  them,  the  gifts  of 
invited  guests,  hung  thickly  on  the  side  walls. 
A  table  in  the  centre  of  the  room  was  piled 
tastefully  with  cakes  and  confectionery.  A 
band  of  music  played  all  the  evening,  and  all 
passers-by  went  in  to  see  the  festive  arrange- 
ments. Early  in  the  morning  the  bride  was 
brought  home  in  a  sedan-chair  covered  with 
scarlet  cloth.  She  was  sixteen  years  old, 
an  only  daughter,  and  had  been  betrothed  for 
five  years.  The  engagement  was  made  by  a 
woman,  called  a  go-between,  whose  business 
was  match-making  ;  and  neither  the  bride  nor 
her  parents  had  ever  seen  the  bridegroom. 
Her  parents  had  received  twenty-eight  dollars 
for  her,  from  the  bridegroom's  father,  and 
were  to  receive  two  dollars  more  in  money,  and 
fourteen  dollars'  worth  of  edibles,  on  the  fol- 
lowing day.  She  had  the  evening  before  been 
washed  in  water  with  twelve  kinds  of  flowers 
in  it,  and  was  dressed  in  red  silk  trousers,  a 
green  silk  petticoat,  and  a  blue  silk  tunic. 
Over  these  was  a  scarlet  robe,  extending  from 


50  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

neck  to  feet.  Her  hair  was  almost  concealed 
by  gilt  ornaments,  and  she  wore  a  veil  of  red 
gauze,  under  another  of  red  silk  fringe.  I  was 
told  that  her  duty  was  to  cry  aloud  on  leaving 
home,  else  she  failed  in  respect  to  her  parents. 
She  was  accompanied  from  home  only  by  the 
go-between  and  another  old  woman,  the  mis- 
tress of  ceremonies  ;  and  she  would  see  none  of 
her  own  relatives  for  four  months,  after  which 
time  she  would  return  for  a  visit  to  her  parents. 
On  her  arrival  at  her  father-in-law's  house,  she 
was  taken  into  a  small  room,  where  she  stayed 
till  she  was  brought  out  and  placed  beside  her 
husband  at  the  wedding  breakfast.  At  this 
only  the  bride  and  groom  sat  down,  and  only 
the  groom  ate.  The  groom  was  an  only  son, 
seventeen  years  old ;  and  his  father  was  consid- 
ered a  man  of  means,  having  some  two  thous- 
and dollars  invested  in  his  business.  He  wore 
green  trousers,  a  brown  tunic,  and  a  black  hat 
with  a  red  tassel  on  the  top.  During  the  meal 
the  bride  sat  with  her  hands  folded,  and  her 
head  bowed  behind  her  veil  ;  and  the  mistress 
of  ceremonies  stood  beside  the  bridegroom  and 
with  a  pair  of  long  chopsticks  picked  tidbits  for 
him  from  the  numerous  dishes  on  the  table. 
With  each    thing    she    took    up   in    her   chop- 


AN    ESPOUSAL.  5  I 

Sticks,  she  chanted  a  stanza  of  four  Hnes.  She 
predicted  that  the  next  year  they  would  wel- 
come a  male  child  ;  that  they  would  have  seven 
sons  and  three  daughters  ;  that  their  daughters 
would  all  be  handsome,  and  that  their  sons 
would  take  literary  degrees  ;  that  they  would 
build  new  houses,  and  would  be  wealthy,  and 
would  live  long.  After  the  bridegroom  had 
made  an  abundant  breakfast,  in  which  he  mani- 
fested great  liking  for  lobster,  the  bride  re- 
turned to  her  room  and  the  bridegroom  was 
called  to  untie  the  inner  veil,  which  was  then 
taken  off  her  face,  and  she  peered  out  through 
the  red  silk  fringe.  Then  she  was  placed  on  a 
chair  at  the  foot  of  her  red  bridal-couch,  with 
piles  of  red  boxes,  containing  her  wardrobe,  on 
either  side  of  her ;  and  there  she  remained  all 
day,  silent  and  motionless. 

Meanwhile,  all  the  family  and  kin  were  en- 
gaged in  preparations  for  the  evening  feast. 
About  dark,  messengers  were  sent  to  call  each 
of  the  invited  guests,  who  were  all  men.  I  sat 
behind  a  screen  at  the  door  of  a  side-room 
where  the  women  were,  and  looked  on.  In 
the  main  room,  five  red  tables,  each  three  feet 
square,  were  ranged  at  comfortable  distances 
apart,  with  seats  for  two  on  each  side.     A  tiny 


52  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

wine-cup,  a  pair  of  chopsticks,  an  earthen 
spoon,  and  a  small  saucer,  were  placed  for  each 
guest.  A  dish  of  sweetmeats  was  at  each  cor- 
ner of  the  table,  and  two  decanters  for  hot  wine 
were  at  one  side.  The  host,  the  bridegroom's 
father,  stood  near  the  door,  facing  it ;  and  each 
guest,  as  he  arrived,  stood  in  the  door  while  the 
host  went  and  relaid  the  chopsticks,  slightly 
moved  the  chair,  and  made  a  low  obeisance  be- 
fore the  place  which  this  guest  was  to  occupy. 
The  ""uest  then  went  and  stood  at  the  seat  in- 
dicated  by  the  host.  When  the  chief  guests, 
two  at  each  table,  had  thus  been  placed,  those 
of  lesser  importance  came  in,  the  host  pointed 
out  their  seats  without  ceremony,  and  all  sat 
down  simultaneously.  All  guests  wore  tunics 
reaching  to  their  feet,  and  red  tasselled  hats. 
The  host  did  not  sit  down  at  supper,  but  super- 
intended the  bringing  of  food  for  the  guests. 
When  he  himself  placed  a  dish  on  a  table,  all 
the  guests  at  that  table  rose  to  receive  it.  The 
servants  brought  the  food  on  trays,  and  placed 
a  bowlful  in  the  centre  of  each  table,  and  all 
ate  from  the  common  dish,  deftly  picking  up 
the  lumps  of  food  with  their  two  chopsticks, 
held  as  we  hold  a  pen,  in  the  right  hand.  All 
the  food  was  in  lumps  or  slices,  requiring  no 


AN    ESPOUSAL.  53 

use  of  knives,  and  boinj;-  perfectly  prepared  for 
chopstick  manipulation.      Some  of   it   swam  in 
broth  which  was  eaten  with    a  porcelain  spoon. 
Two  at   table  frequently  poured   hot  wine  into 
the  cups  of  all.     There  were  thirty-two  dishes, 
each  of  such   mixed  ino^redients  as  to  form  a 
complete  course   in   itself,   and   the   dishes   in- 
creased  in   size   toward   the  end   of   the   feast. 
Among   the   dishes   which    I   recognized,    were 
chicken,    salt    duck,    fish,   pork    boiled    in    mo- 
lasses,  bean-curd,   chestnuts   sliced   and   boiled 
in  sweet  soup,  and  olives.     All  was  minced  and 
mixed,   and   there  was   nothing   on   the   bill-of- 
fare   to   which   a   French   cook   would   affix   an 
nature!.     I  noticed  an  economical  device  in  the 
large  dishes,   that   of  laying  a  huge   turnip  in 
the   middle,   so  that  the  apparently  heaped-up 
delicacies  had  a    kernel    of   less    cost.     There 
was  no  conversation  during  the  meal,  and  no 
greater  hilarity  than  frequent  bows  and  infre- 
quent monosyllables.     Each  gave  his  grave  at- 
tention to  the  business  in  hand,  and  ate  "  with- 
out haste  and  without  rest."     The  bridegroom, 
fearing  practical   jokes    after   supper,   left    the 
room   about  the  middle  of  the  feast,  and  was 
seen  no  more  that  evening.     A  band  of  four 
musicians,  hired  for  three  dollars,  played  during 


54  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

the  supper.  Toward  the  end,  the  mistress  of 
ceremonies  went  to  each  table  in  turn,  chanted 
a  stanza  in  honor  of  the  guests  thereat,  and 
placed  on  the  table  a  tray  with  eight  cups  of 
tea.  Each  guest  drank  the  tea,  replaced  the 
cup,  and  dropped  into  it  from  twenty  to  a  hun- 
dred cash  (from  two  to  ten  cents),  which  was 
removed  to  be  divided  between  the  go-between 
and  the  mistress  of  ceremonies.  At  the  end  of 
the  feast,  indicated  by  the  bringing  on  of  pellets 
of  dough,  all  rose  and  went  to  another  apart- 
ment. Then  the  women  and  children  poured 
out  from  the  side-rooms  and  quickly  arranged 
the  tables  for  their  own  supper,  setting  out 
all  that  was  left  from  the  masculine  repast. 
When  the  women  had  supped,  the  tables  were 
cleared  away,  the  women  returned  to  the  side 
rooms,  and  the  male  guests  who  were  not  rela- 
tives returned  to  see  the  bride.  She  did  not  ap- 
pear in  the  large  room,  but  with  the  go-between 
supporting  her  on  one  side  and  the  mistress 
of  ceremonies  on  the  other,  she  approached 
the  door  of  the  small  room  in  which  she  had 
been  all  the  evening  sitting,  and  the  male 
guests  came  to  the  door,  with  candles  in  their 
hands,  to  look  at  her.  The  festivity  seemed  to 
consist  in  urging  her  to  come  one  step  nearer, 


AN    ESPOUSAL.  55 

and  in  asking  to  see  her  small  feet.  She  looked 
steadily  at  the  floor,  silent,  and  with  unchan- 
ging face,  and  only  moved  forward  when  lifted 
along  by  the  two  old  women.  When  they 
raised  her  v'eil  for  a  moment,  she  threw  her 
long  sleeves  over  her  face  ;  whereupon  the  old 
women  withdrew  her  ifito  a  dark  corner  of  the 
room,  and  the  guests  returned  to  their  labored 
merriment  in  the  large  room.  This  exhibition 
of  the  bride  was  repeated  several  times,  the 
impudence  of  the  guests  increasing  until,  in 
any  enlightened  land,  it  would  have  brought 
the  fists  of  the  bride's  father  or  brother  in  their 
faces.  When  my  wrath  had  reached  such  a 
pitch  that  I  was  about  to  undertake,  in  the 
bride's  behalf,  the  duties  of  a  brother,  and  rise 
up  to  slay  those  sixteen  Chinamen,  they  threw 
some  handfuls  of  cash  on  the  table  as  ''a  re- 
ward for  seeing  her  face,"  and  went  home.  I 
asked  a  woman  who  sat  beside  me  if  she  did 
not  think  it  was  a  shameful  thing  for  the  bride 
to  be  so  treated,  and  she  answered  that  such 
was  Chinese  custom,  and  inquired  if  they  did 
not  do  so  in  my  country.  The  bride  slept  in 
her  new  red  bed,  her  bridal  chamber  being  a 
corner  of  the  family  kitchen. 

The  next  morning,  the  bride  and  groom  wor- 


56  I'AGODA    SHAPOWS. 

shipped  the  ancestral  tablets  and  paid  obei- 
sance to  the  older  members  of  the  family. 
Red  chairs  covered  with  red  cloth  were  placed 
one  on  each  side  of  a  table  on  which  candles 
and  incense  were  burning,  and  the  newly  mar- 
ried couple  knelt  before  these  three  times,  bow- 
im^  their  heads  to  the  earth.  The  chair  was 
slightly  moved,  and  the  cloth  rearranged,  as 
each  new  person  was  thus  emblematically  wor- 
shipped. Some  of  those  worshipped  were  ab- 
sent. Those  present  rose  from  their  seats,  in 
any  part  of  the  room,  and  stood  while  they  were 
being  worshipped  impersonally  at  the  red  chair. 
Then  the  bride  gathered  up  the  skirt  of  her  red 
tunic,  to  hold  the  gifts  of  money  that  were  put 
into  it  by  those  to  whom  she  had  done  homage, 
and  each  put  in  a  few  dimes  or  a  dollar.  This 
would  be  used  by  the  father-in-law  in  defraying 
the  expenses  of  the  wedding.  After  this  the 
bride  retired  to  her  bedroom,  and  her  head- 
ornaments  and  red  dress  were  removed.  Then 
all  the  household  beside  prepared  to  send  off 
the  presents  of  edibles  to  the  bride's  family. 
Three  hundred  and  sixty  little  red  mince-pies, 
forty  red  puffs  of  rice-flour,  two  cakes  three  feet 
across,  lobsters,  pork,   fish,  fowls,  arid   confec- 


AN    ESPOUSAL.  57 

tionery,  were  put  in  red  boxes,  and  carried  on 
the  shoulders  of  bearers  to  their  house,  three 
miles  away.  Then  the  important  ceremonies 
of  the  wedding  were  over. 

As  it  would  be  considered  very  unlucky  for 
the  bride  to  see  a  person  dressed  in  mourning, 
or  one  who  had  lately  borne  a  child,  or  to  eat 
any  thing  from  a  house  where  there  had  re- 
cently been  a  death  or  a  marriage,  she  would  be 
carefully  considered  during  the  succeeding  four 
months.  Then  she  would  visit  her  parents,  and 
after  that  she  would  begin  her  life-work  of  serv- 
ing the  elder  members  of  her  husband's  family. 
She  would  rear  chickens  and  pigs,  cook,  wash, 
carry  burdens,  and  hope  for  male  children  as 
her  chief  good.  There  are  lands  in  which  wo- 
men who  have  lost  the  highest  social  joy  turn 
sadly  and  find  consolation  in  the  affection  of 
children.  Here  the  sweetest  love  a  woman 
dreams  of  is  that  of  her  little  ones,  and 
even  her  maternal  love  is  degraded  because 
she  has  known  no  other.  There  is  no  romance 
in  the  life  of  a  Chinese  woman,  and  nothing 
chivalrous  in  the  character  of  a  Chinese  man. 
Here  is  a  nation  which  has  had  four  thousand 
years  in  which   to  prove  what   unassisted   hu- 


58  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

manity  can  do  for  itself :  and  its  women  have 
no  higher  joy  than  the  certainty  that  they  shall 
always  have  enough  to  eat,  and  its  men  no 
nobler  ambition  than  to  have  numerous  de- 
scendants. 


CHAPTER   VI. 

THE    INVISIBLE    BRIDEGROOM. 

An  old  woman  told  me  this  story,  pertaining 
to  one  of  her  own  relatives.  We  were  discuss- 
ing: the  evils  which  arise  from  the  custom  of 
betrothing  young  children  to  each  other.  Such 
engagements,  made  by  the  parents,  without 
the  knowledge  of  the  young  people,  are  no  less 
binding  than  the  marriage  itself.  They  can- 
not indeed  be  legally  broken,  and  seldom  fail 
of  being  fulfilled.  It  is  far  more  common  for 
a  husband  to  sell  his  wife  than  for  a  girl  to  be 
set  free  from  the  pledges  her  parents  have  made 
for  her.  The  only  recourse  left  to  a  girl  who 
is  married  to  a  hated  husband  is  to  commit 
suicide,  or  to  behave  so  badly  that  she  will  be 
sold  to  some  other  man. 

A  rich  man  had  a  chief  wife  and  several 
inferior  wives.  The  first  wife  had  but  one  son, 
while  the  subordinate  wives  had  several.     One 

59 


6o  ,  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

day  a  wealthy  man,  from  a  town  a  clay's  journey 
away,  came  on  business,  and  sat  conversinj;- 
with  this  gentleman  in  his  study,  while  the 
chief  wife's  son,  then  a  bright,  active  boy  four 
years  old,  played  about  the  room.  The  beauty 
and  activity  of  the  boy  attracted  the  attention 
of  the  visitor,  and  he  mentioned  that  he  himself 
had  a  daughter  of  the  same  age.  An  agreement 
was  soon  entered  into,  between  the  two  fathers, 
that  the  children  should  espouse  each  other ; 
and  a  go-between  was  employed,  horoscopes 
cast,  and  all  the  rites  of  a  betrothal  accom- 
plished. There  was  no  further  intercourse  be- 
tween the  two  families  for  many  years.  The 
girl  grew  up,  and  was  of  lovely  disposition,  un- 
usual beauty,  and  fine  talents.  She  was  skilled 
in  needlework,  and  could  read  and  write.  When 
she  was  sixteen,  her  wedding-day  came,  and 
she  was  carried  to  her  mother-in-law's  house. 
Her  mother  had  prepared  her  wedding  outfit  of 
five  hundred  garments,  with  much  jewellery, 
and  exquisite  appliances  for  the  occupations 
she  loved  ;  and  her  father-in-law  spent  a  thou- 
sand dollars  in  fitting  up  her  bridal  chamber, 
and  in  the  entertainment  of  wedding  guests. 

Wealthy  and  cultured  brides  see  little  com- 
pany,  and   after  her  arrival   at   her  mother-in- 


THE    INVISIBLE    HKIDEGKOOM.  6 1 

law's  house,  she  did  not  for  months  leave  her 
own  room.  She  spent  her  time  in  reading, 
embroidery,  and  painting;  and  was  waited  upon 
by  four  handmaidens,  two  of  whom  were  given 
her  by  her  own  mother,  and  two  by  her  mother- 
in-law.  At  the  end  of  four  months,  she  had 
never  seen  nor  heard  of  her  husband.  At  this 
time  it  is  customary  for  the  mother  of  a  bride 
to  send  a  sedan-chair,  and  invite  her  daughter 
to  return  and  visit  her  parents;  but  this  girl 
declined  her  mother's  invitation,  because  she 
felt  unable  to  answer  the  questions  of  her  for- 
mer associates  about  her  present  domestic  life. 
She  sent  excuses  to  her  mother,  and  was  widely 
commended  for  her  filial  devotion  to  her  mother- 
in-law.  She  could  not  so  far  depart  from  that 
modest  reticence  becoming  to  a  young  woman 
as  to  make  any  inquiries  in  regard  to  her  hus- 
band, and  a  year  more  passed  without  sign 
of  him.  Then,  when  she  had  pondered  the 
matter  much,  she  chose  a  time  when  only  her 
handmaidens  were  with  her,  and  asked  one  of 
them  if  she  had  ever  seen  her  master.  The 
girl  answered,  "  Certainly  :  I  see  him  every  day, 
and  will  lift  him  in  for  you  to  see  if  you  wish 
it."  —  *' Why  must  you  lift  him  in  .^  Can  he 
not  walk?"  —  "No,  he  cannot  walk." — "Has 


62  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

he  a  sore  foot  ?  "  —  "  No,  he  has  not  a  sore  foot." 
—  "When  do  voii  see  him.'*"  —  "When  I  2:0 
to  feed  him."  —  "  Is  he  ill .''  "  —  "  No,  he  is  not 
ill."  —  "  Why  does  he  not  come  here  ?  "  —  "  Be- 
cause we  were  told  not  to  fetch  him  till  you 
asked  for  him.  Shall  we  bring  him  now.'*"  — 
"Yes,"  So  the  handmaidens  went  and  brought 
in  a  man  in  a  large  basket,  and  placed  him  be- 
side their  mistress's  chair.  He  was  full-grown, 
but  utterly  helpless,  so  that  he  could  not  move 
his  limbs,  and  had  never  learned  to  talk.  He 
wept  when  he  saw  the  consternation  of  his 
wife,  and  seemed  to  try  to  comfort  her  with 
inarticulate  sounds. 

She  sent  for  her  father  to  come,  and  he 
looked  on  the  rickety  lad,  and  could  not  speak 
a  word  for  sorrow.  He  took  his  daughter's  pen, 
and  wrote,  "Daughter,  it  is  your  fate,"  and  gave 
her  the  paper  and  turned  away  homeward  with- 
out a  word  more. 

This  girl  was  so  gently  bred,  and  the  two 
families  were  so  respectable,  that  there  was  no 
thought  of  dissolving  the  marriage.  Her  family 
could  not  complain,  for  the  boy  was  well  when 
the  betrothal  was  made,  and  began  to  grow 
helpless  immediately  afterward,  showing  that 
her   star  was    a   baleful    one   for    him.     There 


THE    INVISIBLE    BRIDEGROOM.  63 

could  be  no  recriminations  from  cither  side. 
The  mother-in-law  adopted  four  boys  as  sons 
for  this  girl  and  hoped  she  would  be  interested 
in  living.  But  she  pined  continually  and  died 
in  three  years.  The  cripple  lived  to  be  over 
thirty  years  old.  His  adopted  sons  lived,  mar- 
ried, thrived,  inherited  the  chief  part  of  the 
estates,  and  now  make  offerings  at  the  tombs 
of  the  ancestors. 


A    VIEW    IN    I'EKINT, 


CHAPTER   VII. 


HABITATIONS. 


Though  the  masses  of  the  people  are  farmers, 
they  live  in  villages,  not  in  isolated  houses  ;  and 
the  villages  are  so  numerous  that  many  others 
may  be  seen  from  any  one  of  them  all  over  the 
land.  The  people  are  the  farthest  possible  from 
nomadic.  Generation  after  generation  of  the 
same  family  lives  in  the  same  house  and  tills 
64 


HABITATIONS.  65 

the    same    fields,    which    descend    surely   from 
father  to  son. 

Most  people  dwell  in  hovels,  sleeping  and 
eating,  with  their  pigs  and  chickens,  in  a  single 
room.  Cholera  prevails  all  summer,  small-pox 
all  winter,  and  vermin  all  through  the  year. 
They  are  densely  crowded  into  their  quarters, 
and  few  individuals  have  a  separate  room.  I 
have  one  Chinese  acquaintance  only  who  occu- 
pies alone  a  brown-stone  front.  A  great  brown 
rock  has  in  some  past  age  toppled  over  upon 
another  rock,  in  such  a  way  as  to  form  the  roof 
and  side  of  a  sort  of  lean-to,  and  in  the  crevice 
underneath,  a  bachelor  makes  his  abode,  and 
stores  the  tools  he  uses  and  the  paddy  he 
raises  on  the  fields  near  by.  He  has  built  up 
with  stones  and  mortar  the  two  wide  openings 
in  the  ends  of  his  apartment,  and  he  avoids  the 
necessity  for  having  a  chimney  by  doing  his 
cooking  out  of  doors.  The  glinting  of  his  fire 
often  adds  picturesqueness  to  the  rugged  hill- 
side of  which  he  is  the  sole  inhabitant.  By 
far  the  greatest  portion  of  the  population  live 
in  huts,  which  are  rendered  hovels  by  the 
accumulations  of  filth  in  and  around  them. 
The  walls  are  of  some  sort  of  cheap  and 
rough   mason-work.     The    roof   is   of    tiles,  up- 


^6  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

held  by  beams  and  slats  of  pine.  The  only 
opening  in  the  room  is  one  door,  and  when  this 
is  closed,  the  light  is  admitted  through  two 
or  three  flakes  of  translucent  shell  or  glass  set 
in  the  roof.  The  floors  are  of  earth,  pounded 
hard  and  level.  The  furniture  of  these  dwell- 
ings consists  usually  of  pine  beds  and  trestles, 
a  deal  table,  earthen  furnaces  and  pots,  and 
piles  of  indescribable  rubbish.  As  hardly  any 
one  lives,  or  would  be  willing  to  live,  in  an  iso- 
lated house,  these  huts  are  built,  with  no  inter- 
stices between  them,  along  streets  a  yard  wide, 
or  around  paved  courts  where  clothes  are  dried, 
pigs  reared,  and  food  cured  in  the  sun.  A 
somewhat  better  dwelling-house  is  built  with 
its  door  in  a  high  wall  on  the  street,  and  behind 
this  front  door  is  a  small  court  open  to  the  sky, 
and  containing  perhaps  a  well,  a  few  flowering 
shrubs  in  pots,  and  possibly  some  vines  clam- 
bering up  a  trellis.  On  either  side  the  court 
are  rooms  opening  upon  it,  and  at  its  inmost 
end  is  a  large  room  used  in  common  by  all  the 
inmates,  and  having  on  its  wall,  opposite  the 
street-door,  a  grand  shelf  for  the  family  gods. 
This  common  room  is  often  the  receptacle  of 
the  garnered  products  of  the  land,  and  of  the 
farming  implements,  and  of  the  looms,  dye-pots, 


HABITATIONS.  6/ 

and  washtubs  of  the  women  of  the  household. 
Opening  out  of  it  on  cither  side  are  two  bed- 
rooms, usually  occupied  by  the  older  members 
of  the  family.  When  sons  grow  old,  and  wives 
are  brought  home  for  them,  the  rooms  are  ap- 
portioned so  that  each  son  shall  have  one;  and 
several  married  brothers  and  their  children 
often  live  with  the  parents,  and  perhaps  with 
grandparents  and  uncles,  in  one  house. 

The  great  mass  of  the  Chinese  nation  lives 
thus  in  unventilated,  unceiled,  and  unfloored 
rooms,  that  are  terribly  hot  in  summer,  terribly 
cold  in  winter,  and  full  of  stench  always.  Proba- 
bly nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine  thousandths 
of  the  population  spend  their  lives  in  such  un- 
clean and  uncomfortable  homes. 

The  wealthy  live  in  houses  that  are  generally 
of  but  one  storey,  but  they  cover  much  ground 
and  are  adorned  with  carving  and  painting. 
They  include  courts  and  gardens,  with  artificial 
grottoes,  fish-pools,  and  lotus-ponds,  all  within 
a  few  yards  of  space.  Epitomes  of  nature  are 
greatly  admired  by  the  Chinese.  The  plas- 
tered walls  are  comparatively  lofty,  and  are  or 
namented  with  pictures  of  birds,  flowers,  and 
historic  scenes,  or  with  curious  scrolls.  The 
roof-beams  are  carved,  and  the  floors  are  laid  in 


68  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

colored  tiles.  The  wide  doors  and  many  courts 
give  light  and  air,  and  the  impervious  wall  pre- 
sented everywhere  on  the  outer  side,  gives 
protection  from  thieves.  These  houses  are 
furnished  witli  articles  in  ebony  and  stone, 
carved  in  the  highest  style  of  Oriental  art. 
Exquisite  porcelain,  bronze,  jade,  and  silver 
vessels  serve  the  occupants,  who  are  clad  in 
robes  of  embroidered  satin  and  crape. 

Though  the  Chinese  style  of  house-building 
seems  to  us  uncheerful,  it  is  doubtless  the  one 
by  which  the  inmate  gets  the  greatest  amount 
of  comfort  from  the  smallest  amount  of  money. 
The  wall  without  aperture  discourages  thieves, 
though  the  roof  is  vulnerable,  making  it  neces- 
sary for  some  one  to  stay  always  in  the  house 
to  guard  against  having  the  things  hooked  up 
through  a  hole  made  by  removing  the  tiles  over- 
head. A  ceiling  would  favor  the  dark  dampness 
dear  to  white  ants,  and  cause  rapid  destruction 
of  the  roof-beams.  The  cheapest  floor  is  that 
carried  around  on  their  feet,  in  the  thick  wooden 
soles  of  their  shoes.  Wadded  tunics  are  far 
less  costly  than  fuel,  and  the  expense  of  fire- 
places and  stoves  is  not  incurred.  Their  loose, 
strong,  and  healthful  garments,  worn  as  well  by 
night  and  in  rest,  as  by  day  and  at  work,  and 


HAIUTATIONS.  69 

their  hardy  habit  of  sleeping  on  a  smooth  board 
with  only  a  straw  mat  over  it,  render  narrow 
quarters  endurable. 

The  real  discomfort  of  their  homes  is  due 
not  so  much  to  poverty  as  to  superstition. 
The  binding  of  the  feet  of  the  women  disables 
them  from  much  house-cleaning.  The  idea  that 
white  is  an  unlucky  color  prevents  whitewash- 
ing, and  the  walls  become  leprous.  Their  no- 
tions of  geomancy  hinder  and  bind  them  at 
every  point.  When,  and  not  until,  Christian 
truth  shall  have  permeated  to  the  foundations 
of  Chinese  society,  will  the  Chinese  become 
well  housed.  Then,  with  no  more  money,  the 
hovels   may  be  cottages  and  the  huts  homes. 

The  cities  present  a  very  uniform  appearance, 
the  houses  being  nearly  all  one  storey  in  height, 
with  the  roofs  nearly  on  a  level  and  covered  with 
gray  tiles.  The  cities  are  always  walled,  the 
walls  being  from  fifteen  to  sixty  feet  in  height, 
with  strong  gates  which  are  closed  at  nightfall. 
There  are  as  many  as  seventeen  hundred  of 
the  district  and  provincial  cities,  seats  of  local 
government.  The  provincial  cities  contain  an 
average  of  one  million  inhabitants,  and  the 
district  cities  a  hundred  thousand. 


A    TEA-GARDEN. 


CHAPTER   VIII. 


THE    IXCOXVEXIENXE    OF    HEATHENISM. 


Besides  the  grave  spiritual  losses  which  ac- 
crue to  the  worshipper  of  false  gods,  there  are 
constant  earthly  discomforts  which  come  to  him 
through  his  religion. 

Whitewash  is  a  well-known  preparation,  very 
cheap,  and  easily  obtained.      If  applied  to  the 


THE    INXONVENIEN'CK    OF    HEATHENISM.         /I 

walls  of  the  hovels  in  which  the  masses  of  the 
people  live,  it  would  help  to  extirpate  the  ver- 
min, and  make  the  dreary  rooms  lighter  and 
healthier.  lUit  white  is  reckoned  an  unlucky 
color,  and  so  buildings  remain  uncleansed  for 
scores  of  years,  their  walls  black  with  smoke, 
mould,  and  grime.  I  rented  a  small  room  open- 
ing into  a  chapel,  at  one  of  our  stations,  and 
desiring  to  use  it  as  a  bedroom  for  myself,  asked 
the  owner's  permission  to  whitewash  it.  He 
begged  me  to  abandon  the  project,  because 
white  was  the  color  worn  in  mourning,  and  to 
whitewash  a  room  belonging  to  him  would 
probably  cause  a  death  in  his  family.  So  I 
had  to  sleep,  when  at  that  station,  in  a  room 
whose  windowless  walls  w^ere  coated  with  the 
exhalations  of  several  generations  of  occu- 
pants. 

Rooms  are  often  destitute  of  light  and  ven- 
tilation, because  windows  are  supposed  to  afford 
egress  to  evil  spirits  which  may  injure  the 
occupants  of  neighboring  houses.  I  have  sev- 
eral times  proposed  cutting  windows  in  the 
walls  of  rented  houses  at  country  stations,  and 
have  been  told  that  some  neighbor  strenuously 
objected  to  my  so  doing,  because  of  the  fatal 
effects  to  him  which  might  follow^     Fortunately, 


72  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

however,  there  are  cases  in  which  an  earthen 
tiger  with  open  mouth,  or  even  a  pot  or  basket, 
placed  on  the  roof  of  the  dwelling  opposite, 
catches  the  evil  emanations,  and  makes  the 
window  harmless  to  humanity. 

All  the  roads  are  so  intricate  and  tortuous 
that  none  but  an  old  resident  attempts  to  travel, 
even  from  one  village  to  the  next^  without  a 
guide.  To  direct  one  to  a  place  in  any  other 
way  than  by  leading  him  is  difficult.  Of  neces- 
sity, all  parties  of  travellers  are  "personally 
conducted."  In  visiting  among  our  church- 
members,  and  in  teaching  in  the  hamlets,  I  at 
first  pondered  much  upon  the  fact  that  the 
Chinese  did  not  appear  to  have  discovered  that 
a  straight  line  is  the  shortest  distance  between 
two  points.  I  would  start  for  a  village  that 
looked  as  if  it  were  but  a  short  distance  away 
on  the  plain,  but  the  road  to  it  was  always  many 
times  farther  to  my  feet  than  to  my  eye.  After 
awhile  I  learned  that  all  roads  and  canals  are 
made  labyrinthian,  so  that  wandering  evil  spirits 
may  not  easily  find  their  way  to  the  abodes  of 
the  inhabitants  of  the  land. 

A  city  of  two  hundred  thousand  persons  has 
beside  its  walls  a  tidal  canal,  through  which 
hundreds    of    boats    pass    monthly.       But    the 


THE    INXOXVEXIENCE    OF    HEATHENISM.         73 

bridges  across  the  canal  are  so  low  that  boats 
that  must  unlade  their  cargo  in  order  to  go 
through  the  canal  at  low  tide,  must  lade  in 
heavy  cargo  in  order  to  go  under  the  bridges 
when  the  tide  is  high.  The  result  is  that  at 
times  the  boats  are  so  packed  in  the  canal  as 
to  make  it  impassable,  and  at  all  times  the 
traffic  of  a  great  city  is  impeded,  and  almost 
ruined,  by  eight  low  bridges.  These  cannot  be 
raised,  because  high  structures,  other  than  those 
devoted  to  the  gods,  are  supposed  to  have  a 
deleterious  influence  upon  surrounding  dwell- 
ings. 

As  the  prosperity  of  a  household  is  supposed 
to  depend  on  having  the  graves  of  dead  pro- 
genitors in  such  sites  as  are  satisfactory  to  their 
occupants,  no  parent  is  buried  until  a  sooth- 
sayer has  selected  a  spot  for  the  tomb.  The 
rules  governing  the  choice  of  burial-places  are 
occult,  and  it  is  often  difficult  to  find  among 
the  hills  the  exact  conformation  of  land  and 
the  precise  relations  to  wind  and  water  con- 
stituting a  favorable  location  for  a  grave. 
Therefore  the  encoffined  dead  are  frequently 
kept  in  the  habitations  of  the  living,  for  many 
years,  to  the  detriment  of  the  whole  surviving 
family. 


74  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 


Great  and  useless  expense  attends  the  observ- 
ance of  geomantic  rules.  In  Soochow,  two  twin 
pagodas  were  built  in  the  form  of  Chinese  pens, 
and  for  some  time  thereafter  the  scholars  of 
that  quarter  of  the  city  in  which  these  pagodas 
stood  were  very  successful  in  the  examinations, 
and  an  unusual  number  took  literary  degrees, 
while  the  scholars  in  other  parts  of  the  city 
were  unsuccessful.  The  lucky  candidates  were 
much  complained  of  for  having,  through  the 
pen-pagodas,  drawn  to  themselves  the  good  luck 
which  ought  to  be  equally  distributed  over  the 
town,  and  a  remedy  was  sought  and  adopted 
by  the  wronged  scholars.  They  built  in  their 
own  vicinage  another  pagoda,  representing  an 
immense  cake  of  ink,  and  thereafter  shared  the 
benefits  bestowed  by  the  gods  on  those  who 
revere  writing  materials. 

People  so  poor  that  they  lack  sufficient  food 
spend  hard-earned  money  on  offerings  made  to 
gods  and  demons,  and  then  fail  to  escape  from 
dread  and  terror  of  these  beings. 

There  came  under  my  personal  observation 
the  following  sad  case.  A  couple  had  been 
married  many  years,  and  had  no  children.  The 
wife  made  many  prayers  and  offerings  in  a 
neighboring   temple,  and    promised    the  idol  a 


THE    INXOXVENIENX'E    OF    HEATHENISM.         75 

splendid  feast  if  she  should  have  a  son.  At 
last  her  desire  was  fulfilled,  and  the  delighted 
couple  wished  to  pay  their  vow  to  the  idol. 
But  they  were  very  poor,  having  only  a  bit 
of  land,  from  which  they  obtained  their  whole 
living.  They  considered  much  what  they 
should  do.  They  had  no  rich  friends  from 
whom  to  borrow,  no  handsome  clothes  that 
they  could  pawn,  and  no  way  of  earning  more 
than  their  daily  bread  ;  yet  the  idol  must  be 
satisfied,  else  it  might  do  great  harm  to  them 
and  their  child.  There  was  only  the  land, 
which  was  their  sole  dependence.  After  much 
distressed  debate,  in  which  fear  of  the  idol 
prevailed,  they  sold  the  land  for  thirty  dollars, 
and  spread  a  thanksgiving  feast  before  the  god. 
Then  they  struggled  on,  not  hopelessly,  because 
they  had  a  son,  and  therefore  need  not  go 
naked  and  hungry  in  their  old  age  in  this  world, 
nor  in  the  world  of  spirits.  By  working  at 
odd  jobs  here  and  there,  they  managed  to  keep 
themselves  alive  and  to  feed  the  child.  When 
the  boy  was  eight  years  old,  another  son  was 
born  to  them.  Again  the  idol  must  have  a 
thank-offering;  but  this  time  they  had  no  land 
to  sell  and  were  in  the  last  stages  of  poverty. 
Their  only  valuable  possession  was  their  eight- 


76  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

year-old  boy.  He  was  bright  and  handsome, 
and  a  rich,  childless  man  wanted  him  for  his 
son.  After  much  discussion,  agitated  by  fear  of 
the  idol,  and  by  desire  for  its  beneficent  influ- 
ence on  the  babe,  and  all  other  means  of  2:et- 
ting  money  having  failed,  they  sold  the  boy  for 
fifteen  dollars,  and  again  made  a  feast  before 
the  god.  The  elder  boy  gone  and  the  feast 
over,  the  baby  took  small-pox  and  died.  The 
raving,  despairing  mother  carried  the  corpse 
and  bound  it  on  the  breast  of  the  idol,  saying, 
"  You  have  eaten  our  house,  you  have  eaten 
our  pots  and  pans,  you  have  eaten  our  eight- 
year-old  boy  :  all  we  ever  had  has  gone  into 
your  maw.     Now  eat  this  !  " 

The  reckoning  of  times  causes  grave  losses. 
The  Chinese  have,  for  over  four  thousand  years, 
divided  time  into  cycles  of  twelve  and  cycles  of 
ten,  five  of  the  former  and  six  of  the  latter  mak- 
ing contemporaneously  the  great  cycle  of  sixty. 
The  numbers  in  the  cycle  of  twelve  are  repre- 
sented by  twelve  animals,  the  rat,  the  ox,  the 
tiger,  the  hare,  the  dragon,  the  serpent,  the 
horse,  the  goat,  the  ape,  the  cock,  the  dog,  and 
the  hog.  The  numbers  in  the  cycle  of  ten  are 
allotted  to  five  substances,  wood,  fire,  earth, 
metal,  and  water.     Each  year,  month,  day,  and 


THE    INCONVENIENCE    OF    HEATHENISM.         7/ 

hour  has  thus  a  binary  designation,  and  is  reck- 
oned as  belonging  to  each  of  these  two  perpetu- 
ally revolving  cycles  ;  and  a  time  is  lucky  or 
unlucky  according  to  the  harmony  or  disagree- 
ment between  the  representatives  of  these  four 
periods.  By  consideration  of  these,  horoscopes 
are  cast,  fortunate  days  chosen,  and  the  most 
favorable  moment  for  the  transaction  of  impor- 
tant business  decided  upon.  If  the  year  belongs 
to  water,  and  the  day  to  fire,  the  time  would  be 
unlucky,  unless  its  character  were  changed  by 
some  influence  in  the  month  and  hour,  which 
would  obviate  the  danger  arising  from  the  collis- 
ion of  elements  so  inimical  to  each  other  as  are 
fire  and  water.  Since  metals  are  melted  by  fire, 
these  two,  coming  together  in  the  cycle,  \¥0uld 
make  the  season  un propitious  ;  while  each 
might  meet  any  of  the  other  four  elements 
without  danger. 

Then  the  animals  in  the  cycle  of  twelve  have 
enmities  or  affinities  with  each  other  and  with 
the  elements  in  the  cycle  of  ten,  and  to  calcu- 
late the  results  of  their  collision  is  a  profound 
problem,  supposed  to  have  an  immense  influ- 
ence in  human  affairs. 

Blind  men  are  the  chief  calculators  of  horo- 
scopes.    They  learn  their  trade  from  more  or 


yS  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

less  expert  masters,  and  live  upon  their  earnin^rs" 
in  it.  They  go  about  the  country  on  foot,  lean- 
ing on  the  shoulder  of  a  child  guide,  with  a 
bag  to  hold  their  tools  and  gains,  and  a  bell 
to  announce  their  coming.  When  a  Chinese 
mother  has  a  new  child,  she  generally  calls  in  a 
blind  fortune-teller  to  advise  her  concerning 
the  peculiar  dangers  to  which  her  offspring  is 
exposed,  and  to  tell  her  what  offering  she  must 
make  to  the  gods  to  induce  them  to  protect 
it  from  harm.  She  gives  the  fortune-teller 
the  necessary  data,  and  he  casts  a  horoscope 
founded  on  the  numbers  representing,  in  the 
two  cycles,  the  year,  month,  day,  and  hour  of 
the  child's  birth,  and  tells  her  what  troubles  she 
must  forestall.  She  begs  him  to  make  offerings 
and  to  importune  his  god  in  behalf  of  her  infant, 
and  he  mentions  a  sum  which  will  suffice  to 
cover  the  expense  of  these  rites.  She  perhaps 
demurs  at  the  cost.  He  then  tells  her  that  she 
may  herself  make  the  necessary  offerings  to 
some  god  in  a  neighboring  temple,  and  proceeds 
to  give  a  list  of  the  articles  she  must  offer 
in  order  to  preserve  the  child.  As  the  list 
lengthens,  she  becomes  frightened  at  the  pro- 
spective outlay,  and  hastily  agrees  to  pay  him 
the  sum  he  first  mentioned  as  the  price  of  tak- 


THE    INCONVENIENCE    OF    HEATHENISM.         79 

ing  all  trouble  off  her  hands.  His  charge  is 
commonly  from  twenty  cents  to  a  dollar  if  the 
child  be  in  good  health  and  the  woman  poor. 
Though  his  demands  be  extortionate,  the  woman 
dare  not  dismiss  him  in  anger,  lest  he  use  the 
data  she  has  given  him  in  making  charms  which 
will  injure  her  child.  The  bargain  completed, 
he  gives  her  a  little  bag  of  incense  to  be  worn 
by  the  child  as  an  amulet,  and  then  he  goes  on 
his  way.  The  fortune-teller  is  not  held  respon- 
sible for  the  fate  of  the  child  ;  and  probably  the 
mother  never  saw  him  before  and  will  never  see 
him  thereafter.  It  is  said  that  as  many  as 
eighty- mothers  in  every  hundred  have  a  horo- 
scope cast  for  their  children  when  under  a 
month    old. 

In  the  astrological  almanac,  the  lucky  days 
corresponding  to  all  birthdays  are  given,  and 
any  one  who  can  read  can  find  them.  For 
starting  on  a  journey,  for  beginning  to  build 
any  dwelling,  for  moving  into  a  house,  for  open- 
ing new  ground,  for  digging  a  well  or  a  pit,  for 
mending  a  roof,  for  making  a  kitchen-range, 
for  setting  up  a  mill,  for  starting  a  web  of 
cloth,  for  shaving  a  child's  head  the  first  time, 
for  dressing  a  girl's  hair  in  womanly  style,  for 
setting  up  a  bride's  bedstead,  for  bringing  home 


8o  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

a  wife,  for  dividing  the  ancestral  property,  for 
putting  a  corpse  in  its  coffin,  for  a  funeral,  and 
for  every  enterprise,  a  lucky  day  must  be  found. 
Without  this,  some  accident  will  happen,  or 
some  untoward  event  will  follow.  If  the  matter 
be  one  in  which  several  people  are  concerned, 
the  birthday  of  each  must  be  regarded,  and  a 
day  that  will  harmonize  with  them  all  must  be 
fixed  upon.  For  a  funeral,  the  birthdays  of 
every  living  member  of  the  family  must  be  con- 
sidered, else  the  funeral  will  prove  fatal  to  the 
one  with  whose  birthday  this  day  was  not  in 
accord.  If  one  member  of  the  family  were  born 
in  that  year  of  the  cycle  which  is  named  the 
Hare,  and  the  funeral  of  another  member  of 
the  family  should  take  place  on  a  day  in  the 
cycle  named  the  Dog,  then  the  funeral  might 
prove  fatal  to  him  who  was  born  in  the  year 
of  the  Hare,  because  dogs  destroy  hares. 

Sometimes  the  horoscope  of  a  child  is  said 
to  disagree  with  that  of  some  older  or  more 
esteemed  member  of  the  family,  and  then  the 
child  is  sold  or  given  away  to  some  one  who  has 
an  accordant  horoscope.  My  attention  was  once 
called  by  a  woman  whom  I  had  known  as  child- 
less, to  her  five-year-old  son.  Her  husband  had 
just  bought  the  boy  for  her  for  seventy  dollars. 


THE    INCONVENIENCE    OF    HEATHENISM.        8 1 

the  child's  horoscope  having  been  pronounced 
discordant  with  that  of  his  own  mother,  who 
had  been  ill  ever  since  his  birth.  The  before 
childless  woman  was  very  happy  in  her  new 
possession,  and  the  boy  was  hopping  jubilantly 
around  her  in  a  pair  of  new  trousers,  while  the 
own  mother  was  grieving  to  death  at  the  loss  of 
her  only  son. 

Those  who  leave  this  world  are  thought  to 
require  material  outfit  for  a  journey.  The 
Chinese  dress  consists  chiefly  of  a  pair  of  loose 
trousers  and  a  tunic.  In  summer  these  con- 
stitute the  costume  of  a  working-man,  even 
when  going  to  market  or  to  church.  Wealthy 
and  literary  people  wear  two  or  more  suits, 
according  to  the  weather  and  their  occupation. 
Plain  white  garments  are  often  worn  next  the. 
person,  and  colored  ones  over  these.  The  gar- 
ments of  men  and  of  women  are  much  alike, 
except  that  women  wear  a  kirtle  when  in  full 
dress.  Paper  miitations  of  all  sorts  of  gar- 
ments are  made,  and  burned  at  funerals.  Every 
large  town  and  village  has  shops  whose  stock 
consists  solely  of  such  goods.  Large  quantities 
are  kept  on  hand  ready-made  ;  and  paper  piece- 
goods  are  also  kept,  and  made  up  to  order.  The 
poorest  people  burn  at  least  a  dollar's  worth  of 


82  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

such  goods  when  a  member  of  the  family  dies, 
and  the  rich  often  burn  more  than  a  hundred 
dollars'  worth.  The  poor  burn  the  paper  equi- 
page on  the  seventh  day  after  the  decease,  at 
which  time  the  spirit  is  supposed  to  become 
aware  that  it  is  separated  from  the  body  and 
to  take  its  departure  for  the  land  ot  shades. 
The  rich  have  a  soothsayer  choose  a  lucky  day 
(some  day  within  a  hundred  after  the  decease), 
and  notify  their  friends  and  relatives  when  the 
burning  of  apparel  will  take  place.  All  who 
come  brino"  offerinsjs  to  add  to  the  fire.  Great 
quantities  of  imitation  clothing  are  burned,  and 
also  paper  boats,  horses,  sedan-chairs,  trunks, 
mock  money,  bedding,  opium-pipes,  rugs,  spec- 
tacles, images  of  servants  and  attendants,  and 
all  that  a  traveller  could  use  in  taking  a  journey 
to  a  far  country. 

These  things  are  supposed  to  be  transmuted, 
in  burning,  into  the  articles  which  they  repre- 
sent, and  to  enhance  the  comfort  and  wealth  of 
the  spirit  to  whom  they  are  offered.  It  is 
thought  that  the  departed  will  be  treated  more 
courteously  and  leniently  by  the  constables  and 
judges  in  Hades  if  he  appear  there  as  a  rich 
man  with  many  possessions.  Packages  of  such 
articles  are  brought  as  presents  to  other  spirits, 


THE    INCONVENIENCE    OF    HEATHENISM.         83 

and  are  burned  with  those  belonging  to  the 
newly  departed.  They  are  sent  to  one  already 
in  the  other  world,  by  one  who  is  going  there, 
just  as  a  person  living  in  China  might  send  a 
parcel  to  a  friend  in  America,  by  a  mutual 
acquaintance  who  was  on  his  way  to  the  latter 
country.  Such  presents  are  not  sent,  however, 
more  than  three  years  after  the  friend's  death, 
as  it  is  said  that  after  three  years  the  spirit  no 
longer  wears  the  clothing  supplied  by  its  kin- 
dred on  earth. 

If  you  ask  any  of  those  who  sell  or  burn 
this  paper  equipage  how  they  know  that  the 
spirit  gets  the  things  that  are  offered,  or  why 
they  think  that  the  spirit  does  not  leave  the 
body  until  the  seventh  day  after  death,  or  why 
it  does  not  use  the  paper  clothing  for  a  longer 
period  than  three  years,  they  will  tell  you  that 
they  do  not  know.  This  doctrine  is  not  one 
that  is  set  forth  by  their  sages  nor  is  it  found 
in  books,  but  it  is  what  their  neighbors  say 
and  practise,  and  they  follow  the  custom. 

No  one  will  buy  these  goods  nor  keep  them  in 
his  house,  except  when  preparing  for  a  funeral, 
because  of  a  superstition  that  to  do  so  would 
cause  a  death  in  the  family. 

One  day  I  was  in  one    of   the  shops  where 


84  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

these  goods  are  made  and  sold.  The  shelves 
and  counters  were  piled  with  wonderful  imita- 
tions of  crape,  satin,  velvet,  and  brocade,  and 
the  shopmen  were  busy  in  making  these  into  gar- 
ments with  paste.  Soon  after,  I  passed  a  place 
where  a  great  heap  of  such  things  had  just  been 
burned  and  the  wind  was  scattering  the  ashes 
abroad.  Then  I  thought  of  the  poor,  naked 
spirit,  that,  all  unclothed  and  unhelped  by  these 
futile  efforts  of  those  who  had  been  its  human 
kin,  had  drifted,  solitary  and  terrified,  out  into 
the  great  darkness.  How  unlike  its  going 
forth,  to  that  of  one  who  goes  knowing  that 
God  is,  and  that  in  all  His  universe  there  is  no 
place  where  His  children  need  be  afraid  or 
lonely  ! 


CHAPTER    IX. 


SPIRITISM. 


Many  men  and  women  in  China  at  times 
fall  into  trance  followed  by  frenzy,  and  are 
consulted  as  spirit-mediums  or  interpreters  of 
the  gods,  whose  mouth-piece  they  are  sup- 
posed  to  become.  The  trance  state  is  said 
to  be  first  induced  by  gazing  steadfastly  at  a 
piece  of  gilded  paper  held  near  the  eyes  while 
one  sits  at  a  table  on  which  is  a  censer  contain- 
ing burning  incense.  Afterward  the  familiar 
spirit  takes  possession  of  the  medium  at  any 
moment  and  without  invitation.  The  spirit- 
mediums  previously  announce,  by  incoherent 
talk  while  in  the  trance  state,  what  they  will 
do  at  a  certain  date,  and  eager  devotees  pre- 
pare the  appliances  for  the  exhibition  of  what 
is  considered  to  be  supernatural  power.  Some 
of  their  frequent  exercises  are  to  walk  over 
a    bed    of    live   coals,   to   wash    in   boiling   oil. 


S5 


S6  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

and  to  climb  ladders  of  knives.  The  beds  of 
live  coals  are  several  tens  of  feet  long,  but 
the  coals  are  not  compact,  and  an  agile  per- 
son can  skip  speedily  over  them,  treading  only 
in  the  interspaces.  The  washing  in  boiling 
oil  appears  marvelous,  but  is  really  not  a 
dangerous  performance.  A  large  iron  pan 
over  a.  blazing  fire  contains  boiling  oil.  A 
small  towel,  merged  in  cold  water  in  which 
twelve  kinds  of  flowers  have  been  steeped, 
lies  in  a  tub  beside  the  pan.  The  medium 
rushes  along,  snatches  the  towel,  plunges  it 
into  the  oil,  instantly  draws  it  out,  and  rubs 
herself  therewith.  The  cold  water  meeting 
the  hot  oil  makes  a  mighty  commotion,  but 
the  towel  is  scarcely  more  than  warmed,  and 
no  danger  is  incurred  in  the  washing.  The 
ladders  of  knives  may  be  safely  ascended  by 
any  one.  .The  knives  are  blunt  edged,  and 
the  wooden  wedges  by  which  they  are  fas- 
tened into  the  uprights  project  above  the 
edges  of  the  knives,  and  form  a  safe  resting- 
place  for  the  feet  of  the  climber.  Nothing 
but  the  horror  of  the  by-standers  at  so  sacri- 
legious an  act  has  prevented  at  least  one  per- 
son who  was  not  a  spirit-medium  from  going 
up    these    ladders,    to    prove    that    the    ascent 


SPIRITISM.  Hy 

might  be  made  without  supernatural  aid.  The 
danger  lies  only  in  the  insecurity  of  the  fas- 
tenings holding  the  ladder  in  place.  I  have 
heard  of  several  mediums  who  were  killed  by 
its  fall  when  at  its  top.  But  if  the  medium 
cuts  his  feet  on  the  knives,  or  burns  them 
on  the  coals,  or  scalds  himself  with  the  oil, 
the  reason  given  is  that  some  one  who  has 
lately  borne  a  son,  or  married  a  wife,  has 
looked  at  him  during  the  performance. 

I  have  among  my  personal  acquaintances 
several  women  who  have  been  or  are  spirit- 
mediums.  One  of  these  resides  at  Cannon 
Stand,  on  the  Kit-ie  River.  The  account 
which  she  gave  of  herself  was,  that  for  twenty 
years  she  had  been  a  spirit-medium,  but  now 
she  believed  that  Jesus  could  and  would  save 
her  from  the  powers  of  darkness.  When  she 
was  first  attacked  by  the  spirits,  she  had  con- 
vulsions, and  was  as  one  delirious,  and  while 
in  this  state  she  announced  that  she  would 
the  next  mornino;  walk  over  a  bed  of  burn- 
ing  coals.  When  she  came  to  herself,  she 
trembled  and  wept,  because  she  thought  she 
should  be  burned  to  death  ;  but,  as  the  people 
were  accustomed  to  such  manifestations,  they 
prepared    the*  bed    of    coals,     thirty-five    feet 


88  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

long,  and  at  the  appointed  time  she  again  be- 
came frenzied,  and  walked  ov^er  it  unharmed. 
Since  then,  every  year  when  there  is  to  be  a 
pestilence  or  when  cholera  is  to  prevail,  she 
goes  into  this  frenzy  and  cuts  her  tongue  with 
a  knife,  letting  some  drops  of  the  blood  fall  into 
a  hogshead  of  water.  This  water  the  people 
drink  as  a  specific  against  contagion.  With 
the  rest  of  the  blood  she  writes  charms,  which 
the  people  paste  upon  their  door-posts  or  wear 
upon  their  persons,  as  preventives  of  evil. 
Sometimes  she  predicts  that  two  little  girls 
of  the  same  height  will  walk  the  burning  road 
with  her,  and  when  she  is  ready  to  start,  a 
pair  of  the  girls  of  the  village  are  impelled  to 
come  out  of  the  crowd  of  spectators,  and  in 
spite  of  themselves  to  follow  her  over  the  fiery 
path.  She  also  takes  off  her  he'ad-cloth,  dips 
it  into  a  pot  of  boiling  oil,  and  washes  herself 
with  it  unscathed  ;  but  if  she  scatters  any  of  it 
on  other  people,  it  blisters  them.  While  in  this 
condition,  she  is  possessed  by  the  spirit  of  a 
female  demon,  and  does  its  will,  not  her  own. 
She  says  that  the  sensations  of  being  possessed 
are  worse  than  sea-sickness,  which  was  proba- 
bly a  new  and  impressive  experience  to  her 
when   she    came    to    my   house   b}'  boat.     She 


SPIRITISM.  89 

holds  communication  with  this  spirit  at  any 
time,  and  people  come  constantly  for  consulta- 
tion with  it  through  her.  She  receives  no 
money  for  her  services  as  interpreter,  but  tells 
what  offerings  are  to  be  brought  to  propitiate 
it,  and  she  keeps  the  edibles  which  remain  after 
the  ceremonies  of  worship  are  completed. 

Soon  after  she  met  the  Bible-women  and 
heard  the  gospel  from  them,  a  man  came  to  get, 
from  the  spirit,  advice  concerning  a  sick  child  ; 
but  she  took  the  incense-pot  used  in  her  prac- 
tices, and  threw  it  with  all  its  appurtenances 
into  the  river.  Her  adherents  said  she  had 
gone  crazy,  but  she  told  them  she  had  only  just 
become  sane. 

Almost  every  village  has  one  or  more  spirit- 
mediums,  each  having  his  or  her  familiar  spirit. 
If  spiritualism  is  good,  China  ought  to  be  the 
most  enlightened  and  holy  of  countries.  But, 
though  spirit-mediums  are  so  numerous,  no 
practical  wisdom  has  come  from  the  other 
world  through  them.  On  the  one  side  the 
earth,  as  on  the  other,  departed  wise  men  ig- 
nore this  method  of  communication  with  hu- 
man kind.  Confucius  has  not  through  them 
imparted  any  additional  exhortations  concern- 
ing the  duties  of  the  five  relations,  and  Shak- 


90  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

speare  nas  not  used  them  for  sending  a  new- 
poem  to  his  compatriots.  Hwang  Ti,  who  In- 
vented Chinese  boats,  has  suggested  no  im- 
provement in  junks,  and  Watt  has  added 
nothing  to  the  steam-engine.  Yu,  who  drained 
the  country  after  a  great  flood,  has  given  no 
useful  hints  in  later  inundations,  but  has  been 
as  silent  as  Morse  has  been  concerning:  a  more 
perfect  telegraph  insulator.  Kublai  Khan  has 
failed  to  show  his  people  how  to  make  another 
as  useful  thing  as  the  Grand  Canal,  just  as  Eli 
Whitney  has  neglected  to  give  us  another  in- 
vention equal  to  the  cotton-gin.  Among  Mon- 
gols as  among  Saxons,  philanthropists  and 
writers  and  statesmen  have  died  with  unfin- 
ished work  on  hand,  and  have  made  no  use  of 
the  spirit-mediums  to  tell  how  it  should  be 
completed.  When  Mencius  sends  maxims  as 
wise  as  those  he  wrote  when  in  the  flesh,  and 
Milton  a  poem  as  grand  as  Paradise  Lost, 
and  Fuhhi  a  new  musical  instrument,  and 
Bacon  more  perfect  laws  of  investigation,  there 
will  be  reason  for  esteeming  the  mediums 
through  which  such  valuable  communications 
are  sent.  But  while  **  spiritual  mediums"  of 
the  most  authentic  sort  swarm  in  China,  they 
fail,  as  in  America,  to  convey  any  useful  knowl- 
edge to  mankind. 


WEARING   THE   CANGUE. 


CHAPTER  X. 


THE    KITCHEX-GOD. 


The  £,ods  are  lesfion.  These  are  the  ""reat 
images  in  the  large  temples  and  the  odd  frag- 
ments of  idols  in  shrines  ;  the  local  deities,  of 
which  every  village,  field,  and  mountain  has  its 

91 


92  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

own  ;  the  invisible  controllers  of  the  thunder, 
the  rain,  the  harvest,  and  the  elements  ;  the 
spirits  of  all  the  dead,  and  especially  of  one's 
ancestors ;  and  besides  these  every  strange  ob- 
ject, and  the  site  of  every  inexplicable  phenom- 
enon is  worshipped.  Oddly  shaped  stones, 
queerly  gnarled  roots,  fantastic  bits  of  wood, 
waifs  brought  on  the  tide,  are  all  gods.  A 
fisherman  found  a  mass  of  half-decayed  oyster- 
shells,  the  shape  of  which  was  thought  to 
resemble  a  lion,  and  for  generations  that  was 
worshipped  in  his  house.  On  the  bank  of  a 
stream  where  some  bamboos  were  cut  down, 
the  hollow  stumps  were  filled  with  water,  by  the 
capillary  action  of  the  fibrous  roots.  This  was 
considered  wonderful,  and  travelers  along  that 
road  stopped  to  burn  incense  and  prostrate 
themselves,  before  the  mysterious  deity  residing 
among  those  bamboos. 

All  the  chief  gods  have  their  birthdays  on 
which  they  are  specially  worshipped,  as  well  as 
at  the  great  festivals,  and  at  the  new  and  the 
full  of  each  moon. 

Many  of  the  greater  gods  have  representa- 
tives in  the  family,  and  ashes  from  the  incense- 
pots  in  the  temples  are  frequently  brought,  and 
worshipped  in  the  houses.     But,  whatever  else 


THE    KITCHEN-GOD.  93 

may  be  absent  from  a  pagan  household,  Su 
Meng  Kong  is  not.  He  is  the  god  of  the 
kitchen,  and  none  would  dare  set  up  house- 
keeping without  him.  He  has  been  a  god  for 
hundreds  of  years,  and  all  know  the  legend 
concerning  him. 

A  poor  man  married,  and  soon  became  rich, 
but  he  discarded  the  wife  that  had  brought  him 
good  luck,  and  as  she  wandered  along  the  road, 
she  came  to  a  solitary  hut,  in  which  an  old  man 
sat.  She  told  this  old  man  her  sad  story  and 
he  asked  her  to  be  his  wife.  She  lived  with  him 
in  the  hut  and  he  prospered  and  grew  rich 
and  built  a  large,  fine  house.  When  the 
kitchen-range  was  partially  made,  a  man  came 
begging  to  the  door,  and  she  discovered  in  him 
her  former  husband.  While  she  was  giving 
him  some  money,  her  present  husband  ap- 
proached, and  the  former  husband  hid  in  the 
kitchen-range  and  was  never  seen  more.  He 
turned  into  a  god  and  is  one  to  this  day.  In 
some  families  he  has  no  iniage  set  up,  and  the 
incense-sticks  burned  in  worshipping  him  are 
stuck  in  the  crevices  of  the  range  chimney. 
Many  put  his  image  in  the  main  room  of  the 
house.  His  birthday  is  the  fourteenth  of  the 
seventh  month,  and  on  that  day  every  family 


94  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

worships  him,  each  in  its  own  house.  On  the 
twenty-fourth  day  of  the  last  month  of  the 
year,  when  the  gods  are  supposed  to  go  off 
for  a  ten-days'  holiday,  a  paper  horse  and  other 
trav^elling  equipments  are  burned  for  his  use 
during  his  journey  to  make  his  annual  report  to 
the  superior  gods.  A  lamp  is  kept  constantly 
burning  during  the  first  days  of  the  new  year,  to 
indicate  that  the  family  are  waiting  to  welcome 
him  whenever  he  returns.  When  children  have 
been  away  from  home,  after  greeting  their 
parents,  they  worship  Su  ]\Ieng  Kong.  If  the 
house-mother  rears  fat  pigs,  she  credits  her 
success  to  his  good  will  and  makes  suitable 
thank-offerings  to  him  when  the  pigs  are  sold. 

When  the  father  of  a  family  dies,  and  the 
ancestral  property  is  divided  among  the  sons, 
the  eldest  gets  the  image  of  Su  Meng  Kong, 
the  second  gets  the  censer  that  stands  before 
him,  and  the  others  get  portions  of  the  ashes 
from  the  censer.  Each  then  supplies  what  is 
lacking  in  his  own  religious  outfit,  and  sets  up 
his  god,  and  worships  it  before  cooking  a  meal 
in  his  own  house. 


CHAPTER  XL 

THE    ORIGIN     OF    A    FETE. 


It  is  customary,  near  the  close  of  the  Chinese 
year,  to  take  the  tutelary  deity  out  from  his 
temple,  and  to  carry  him  through  the  principal 
streets  of  the  town.  A  gilded,  open  sedan- 
chair  is  provided  for  his  conveyance,  with  bear- 
ers dressed  in  gorgeous  and  fanciful  costumes. 
A  band  of  musicians  heads  the  procession,  and 
the  throng  follows  with  banners  of  strange 
device.  The  end  of  the  route  is  an  open-air 
theatre,  at  which  the  god  is  the  honored  guest 
and  spectator.  This  outing  is  supposed  to 
gratify  the  idol  who  has  for  many  months  been 
sitting  in  gloom  and  cobwebs,  and  who  may  be 
supposed  to  be  weary  of  the  monotony  of  his 
existence.  His  passage  is,  moreover,  thought 
to  have  a  salutary  influence  in  the  streets 
through  which  he  is  carried. 

Long  ago,  in  the  village  of  lam  Chau,  a  sum 


95 


(^  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

of  money  was  contributed,  and  placed  in  the 
hands  of  a  village  elder  to  pay  the  expense  of 
this  annual  festival  ;  but  this  master  of  cere- 
monies was  a  gambler,  and  immediately  lost  all 
the  money  in  play.  Days  passed,  and  as  the 
theatre  and  procession  were  not  forthcoming, 
the  contributors  became  urgent  that  he  should 
perform  his  duties,  and  so  constantly  harried 
him  that  he  was  at  his  wits'  end  for  excuses 
wherewith  to  pacify  them.  One  of  the  causes 
of  the  urgency  of  the  people  was  the  fear 
tiiat  the  god  would  become  ill-tempered  and 
harmful  if  longer  neglected.  As  the  New- 
year  approached  the  clamor  increased,  but  with 
neither  money  nor  credit  he  was  unable  to  fur- 
nish the  usual  equipments  for  the  god's  journey. 
So,  early  one  morning,  he  went  to  the  temple, 
took  the  god  on  his  back,  and  started  off  on  the 
established  rounds.  An  amazed  crowd  soon  fol- 
lowed him,  and  some  attempted  to  take  the  god 
from  his  back.  After  many  struggles  and  es- 
capes, he  was  at  last  driven  to  the  shore,  where 
he  was  shut  in  between  the  crowd  and  the  sea, 
and  then  the  contest  ended  in  the  waves,  where 
the  god  was  jerked  to  and  fro,  to  the  peril  of 
gilding  and  the  destruction  of  limbs.  Thence 
the  victors  took  it  to  the  temple,  where  it  was 


THE    ORIGIN    OF    A    FETE.  97 

repaired  and  reinstated,  amid  the  forebodings  of 
the  alarmed  populace  over  whom  its  influence 
was  supposed  to  extend.  But  the  ensuing  year 
proved  to  be  a  most  auspicious  one,  with  abun- 
dant crops,  and  no  epidemics.  The  public  weal 
was  then  accredited  to  the  extraordinary  treat- 
ment and  sea-bath  th^it  the  god  had  received, 
and  so  on  every  anniversary  of  that  perform- 
ance, its  peculiar  features  have  been  imitated  in 
that  village  to  the  present  day. 


CHAPTER    XII. 

WOODEN    JL'DGES. 

TfTE  Chinese  sometimes  make  an  idol  the 
umpire  in  a  dispute.  When  there  is  neither 
testimony  nor  evidence  whereby  an  ordinary 
magistrate  can  decide  a  case,  a  suspected  person 
may  go  before  a  god,  and  there  invoke  a  curse 
upon  himself  if  he  be  guilty.  If  no  evil  follow, 
he  is  held  to  be  innocent.  Of  course  it  often 
happens  that  in  the  court  of  these  wooden  judges 
the  hardihood  of  the  culprit  enables  him  to  evade 
punishment,  and  the  misfortune  of  the  innocent 
subjects  him  to  condemnation.  Sometimes  the 
god  appears  to  inflict  chastisement,  and  after- 
ward the  injustice  of  the  judgment  is  discovered, 
whereupon  the  god  becomes  very  unpopular, 
until  some  other  accident  re-establishes  it  in 
the  confidence  of  its  worshippers. 

Several  years  ago,  a  man  took  passage  in  a 
boat  running  between  Swatow  and  Kit-ie,  cities 
9S 


WOODEN    JUDGES.  99 

forty-two  miles  apart.  It  was  in  the  time  when 
clan  feuds  and  piracy  made  travelling  very  un- 
safe ;  and  the  passenger  handed  his  money,  a 
parcel  of  fifty  dollars,  to  the  owner  and  captain 
of  the  boat  for  secure  keeping.  The  captain,  as 
was  his  custom  with  valuables  committed  to  his 
care  by  his  passengers,  put  the  money  away  in 
his  own  cabin,  which  was  in  the  stern  of  the 
boat,  and  had  no  entrance  except  a  trap-door, 
upon  which  the  captain  stood  when  steering  his 
vessel.  When  the  boat  reached  its  destination, 
the  pas&enger  came  to  get  his  money,  but  it 
could  not  be  found.  As  the  captain  was  respon- 
sible for  the  loss,  it  behooved  him  to  discover  the 
thief.  As  he  had  not  been  away  from  the  door 
of  his  cabin  during  the  whole  journey,  and  as  no 
one  but  his  bowman  had  the  right  to  enter  or 
had  been  seen  to  go  into  his  cabin,  he  at  once 
accused  the  bowman  of  the  theft.  The  bowman 
declared  himself  innocent,  and,  in  the  altercation 
that  ensued,  offered  to  go  before  a  certain  re- 
nowned idol  and  invoke  a  curse  upon  himself  if 
he  were  guilty.  The  captain  acceded  to  this 
proposal,  and  agreed  to  acquit  the  bowman  if  the 
god  did  so.  So  they  went,  with  many  interested 
spectators  and  with  offerings,  to  the  temple,  and 
the  bowman  swore  that  he  was  2:uiltless,  invok- 


IOC?  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

ing  the  god  with  imprecations,  and  calling  upon 
it  to  make  him  break  his  leg  as  he  passed  out 
from  the  temple,  if  He  had  lied.  Surely  it  so 
happened.  As  he  passed  out  from  the  temple,  he 
stumbled  over  the  stone  door-sill  and  broke  his 
leg.  His  guilt  was  supposed  to  be  proven  ;  and 
great  fear  of  this  idol  fell  upon  the  by-standers 
and  on  those  to  whom  they  made  their  report. 

But  on  returning  to  his  boat,  the  captain, 
rummaging  in  his  cabin,  found  the  parcel  of  fif- 
ty dollars  in  an  obscure  crevice,  where  he  had 
put  it  when  he  left  Swatow.  He  returned  to 
his  bowman,  acknowledged  the  wrong  done  him, 
paid  for  a  doctor  and  medicines  till  the  leg  was 
healed,  and  trusted  the  idol  no  more. 

A  poor  man,  near  Chiang  Lim,  had  a  son 
studying  under  the  direction  of  a  priest  in  a 
Buddhist  temple.  One  day  the  man  went  to 
carry  a  bag  of  rice  to  the  little  student,  and 
shortly  after  his  departure  from  the  temple, 
the  priest  missed  a  fowl  which  he  was  rearing 
and  training  to  fight.  He  accused  the  man,  who 
declared  that  he  was  o-uiltless  of  the  theft  and 
invoked  the  curse  of  the  god  upon  himself  if  he 
spoke  falsely.  He  stood  before  the  god  and 
said,  "  If  I  took  the  fowl,  may  I  break  an  arm  as 
I  go  out  of  this  presence."     As  he  left  the  tem- 


WOODEN    JUDGES.  Id 

pie  he  stumbled  on  the  steps  and  fell,  breaking 
his  arm.  Shortly  afterward,  the  priest  was  mov- 
ing some  rice-baskets  that  were  piled  on  the 
temple  floor,  and  on  lifting  an  inverted  one,  out 
jumped  the  fowl.  He  then  remembered  having 
covered  it  in  that  way  the  day  before. 


CHAPTER    XIII. 

THE    STONE    PKINXESS    AND    HKR    TKAIX. 

Some  hundreds  of  years  ago  there  lived,  in 
the  Fokien  Province,  a  maiden  whose  father, 
brothers,  and  betrothed  husband  were  all  tra- 
ders. Once  when  she  was  at  home  with  her 
mother,  and  the  men  of  her  household  were 
away  at  sea,  she  dreamed  that  she  saw  their 
three  junks  tossed  in  a  storm  and  about  to  be 
wrecked.  Swimming  out  to  succor  them,  she 
seized  two  of  the  junks  with  her  hands,  and  one 
between  her  teeth.  She  was  making  her  way 
safely  homeward  with  them,  when  she  heard 
her  mother  call  her.  In  order  to  answer,  she 
had  to  open  her  mouth,  and  thus  she  lost  one 
junk  from  her  hold,  and  brought  only  two  into 
port. 

Many  days  after  the  dream,  the  mariners  re- 
turned, and  reported  that  they  had  encountered 
a  fearful  tempest,  in  which  one  of  their  junks 


THE    STONE    PKJNCESS    AND    IIEK    TRAIN.        IO3 

was    lost,   while   two    marvelously   outrode   the 
storm. 

This,  with  a  long  and  honorable  widowhood, 
was  the  cause  of  the  apotheosis  of  this  woman, 
who  is  now  worshipped  under  the  title  of  "  The 
Queen  of  Heaven."  Her  temples  are  numerous 
and  rich.  The  oldest  temple  in  the  city  of 
Swatow,  belonging  to  this  goddess,  was  repaired 
in  1879,  2.t  an  expense  of  a  thousand  dollars; 
and  a  grand  procession  escorted  her  regilded 
and  bedizened  image  through  the  main  streets 
of  the  town,  and  reinstated  it  in  its  niche.  The 
eight  chief  streets  vied  each  with  the  others  in 
the  magnificence  of  the  escort  provided.  All 
business  ceased,  the  wares  that  usually  cumber 
the  sides  of  the  streets  were  removed,  and  ban- 
ners and  transparencies  made  a  gorgeous  awn- 
ing overhead.  Thirty  thousand  dollars  were 
expended  on  the  equipments  for  the  procession, 
as  much  as  a  thousand  dollars  being  contributed 
by  a  single  individual.  Thousands  of  persons 
came  from  the  country  around,  and  thronged 
all  the  standing-room  to  gaze  at  the  procession 
as  it  passed.  The  goddess  herself,  borne  in  a 
splendid  sedan,  and  accompanied  by  her  two 
hideous  servants,  one  with  enormous  ears  that 
are  supposed  to  hear  a  thousand  miles,  and  the 


IOz|  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

Other  with  glaring  eyes  that  are  supposed  to 
see  a  similar  distance,  did  not  excite  manifest 
enthusiasm,  nor  receive  special  attention  from 
the  crowd. 

ORDER   OF   OXE-EICxHTII    OF    THE    I'ROCESSIOX. 

Two  trumpets  making  wild-beast  cries. 

One  horizontal  four-character  scroll  carried  by  two 

bearers. 

Two  large  lanterns  carried  by  two  men. 

Eight  title  or  degree  boards,  two  abreast. 

Twenty  halberds,  silver  and  gold  gilt,  two  abreast. 

Eighteen  horizontal  four-character  scrolls,  two  abreast, 

carried  by  well-clad  men,  all  wearing  spectacles. 

Two  vertical  scrolls. 

Eight  men  in  fine  drab  silk  clothes  and  straw  hats,  two 

abreast. 

A  band  of  twelve  musicians,  under  an  awning. 

Nine  Swatow  merchants  in  mandarin  dress. 

Band. 

Old  bronze  vase  on  table,  four  bearers. 

Two  horizontal  scrolls. 

Nine  large  banners,  highly  embroidered,  and  borne  by 

men  with  enormous  queues  laid  in  coils  on  their 

heads. 

Coolie  carrying  tea  and  refreshments. 

Gongs,  cymbals,  and  string  band. 

Six  horizontal  scrolls,  two  abreast. 

A  paper  horse  and  girl  mounted  on  a  wain. 

Ten  small  silk  embroidered  umbrellas. 


THE    STONE    PRINXESS    AND    HER    TRAIN.        10$ 

Band. 
Platform  with  carved  bamboo-root  birds. 
Two  guards. 
Platform  with  tree-roots  cut  to  resemble  live  '^eese. 
Music. 
Platform  with  tree-roots  cut  to  resemble  dog  and  pups. 
Two  guards. 
Paper  lion  on  a  wain. 
Young  warrior  on  horseback. 
Paper  lion,  cub,  and  globe  on  wheels. 
Music. 
Young  warrior  on  horseback. 
Two  boy  warriors. 
Paper  dolphin  in  chariot  wheeled  by  two  apes. 
Music. 
Boy  warrior  on  horseback. 
Two  boy  warriors  on  foot. 
Horizontal  four-character  screen. 
]\Iusic. 
Platform  with  black  jade  ornaments. 
Two  guards. 
Platform  with  white  jade  ornaments,  four  bearers. 
Music. 
Platform  with  red  and  white  coral  ornaments. 
Gongs. 
Very  fine  chariot  with  two  young  girls,  one  sitting  down, 
and  the  other  supported  on  a  peacock's  head ;  a  fine 
example  of  balancing. 
Music. 
Platform  with  boy  and  girl,  the  boy  standing  and  holding 
out  a  fan  at  arm's  length,  on  which  the  girl  stands 
without  any  visible  support. 


I06  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

Music,  guards,  and  marshals. 
Two  magnificent  large  umbrellas. 
Chariot  with  boy  and  girl;  boy  supporting  the  girl  on  a 
sword  which  he  holds  at  arm's  length  ;  no  visible 
support. 
Music. 
Boy  and  girl  on  platform,  boy  balancing  a  colored  um- 
brella on  his  elbow,  and  girl  standing  on  outer  end  of 
umbrella;  no  visible  support  or  counterbalance. 
Two  umbrellas  highly  embroidered. 
Music. 
A  paper  giant  nine  feet  high,  very  good  imitation. 
Eight  tablets   borne  by  little   boys,  two  abreast;    these 
boys  very  nicely  dressed  ;  tablet  trays  highly 
embroidered. 
Four  boy  warriors,  well  armed. 
Two  vertical  triangular  bannerets. 
Platform  with  a  very  fine  miniature  temple,  in  blue  enamel 
and  gold,  twelve  bearers. 
Five  large  embroidered  umbrellas. 
Two  small  temples  with  interior  tablets. 
Music. 
Four  boys  carrying  tablets  on  trays. 
Nine  merchants  dressed  as  mandarins. 
Two  horizontal  scrolls. 
Eight  boy  warriors  on  horseback  in  Indian  file,  each  sup- 
ported by  two  young  warriors  on  foot. 
Young  girl  on  horseback. 
Refreshments. 
Platform  with  two  girls  working  at  a  bean-curd  mill. 
Two  horizontal  banners. 
Platform  with  set  piece  of  coral  and  rocks,  on  which 


THE    STONE    PRINCESS    AND    HER    TRAIN.        IO7 

are  mounted  two  pretty  girls,  one  of  whom  has  a 

handsome  necklace  made  of  Queen  Victoria 

rupees  and  Hong  Kong  20-cent  pieces. 

Boy  mandarin  on  horseback. 

String  band. 

Grand  temple  in  black  and  gold,  eighteen  bearers. 

Four  vertical,  triangular,  highly  embroidered  banners. 

Set  piece,  "  All  amongst  the  flowers,"'  a  young  girl  and  a 

live  monkey. 

Four  boys  carrying  handsome  tapestry  screens. 

Eighteen  gentry  in  dark-blue  dresses. 

Grand  dragon,  upwards  of  ninety  feet  long,  borne  by 

twenty-two  men. 

Gongs,  drums,  and  cymbals. 

Boys  on  horseback  as  warriors  and  emperors. 

Two  horizontal  four-character  scrolls. 

Refreshments,  tea,  tobacco,  and  betel. 

Magnificent  umbrella  with  figures  in  relief. 


£^\ 


A    BUUUHIST    PKIEST. 


CHAPTER    XIV. 

BUDDHIST    NUNS. 

Among  the  villages,  one  not  infrequently  sees 
a  woman  in  a  gray  cotton  tunic  and  conical 
splint  hat,  with  a  shaven  head  and  natural  feet, 


BUDDHIST    NUNS.  IO9 

and  carrying  a  bag  and  basket  on  her  arm. 
Her  attire  distinguishes  her  from  other  Chinese 
women.  The  long  gray  gown  and  shaven  head 
are  the  badges  of  her  reHgioiis  order,  that  of 
a  Buddhist  nun.  The  bag  holds  the  rice,  and 
the  basket  the  fruit  and  vegetables,  given  her 
at  the  doors  of  the  houses  before  which  she 
halts.  She  is  supposed  to  have  more  intimate 
friendship  with  Buddha  than  have  those  who 
dwell  outside  his  temple,  and  those  who  give 
to  the  servant  will  get  favors  from  the  lord  of 
the  house.  Devotion  in  the  believer  is  not  a 
criterion  of  the  truth  of  a  creed.  The  Buddhist 
nun's  bag  is  always  well  filled,  although  little 
o-Qod  comes  to  the  donor  of  its  contents. 

In  the  gleanings  of  her  morning  walk,  the 
nun  has  enough  for  herself,  and  for  some 
other  nuns  too  young  or  too  old  to  go  out  and 
gather  for  themselves.  Her  home  is  a  temple, 
sometimes  extensive  in  its  grounds,  fine  in  its 
architecture,  and  elegant  in  its  appurtenances. 
It  is  built  by  one  rich  family,  or  by  the  contri- 
butions of  many  persons,  in  the  hope  of  making 
merit  which  shall  be  put  to  their  credit  in  their 
next  world.  It  has  a  main  building,  in  which 
are  immense  figures  of  Buddha,  and  lesser  halls 
with    imao-es   of   the  saints.     Before   these  the 


no  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

nuns  chant  liturgies  three  times  a  day.  Their 
sacred  writings  are  in  Chinese  letters,  translated 
from  the  Buddhist  books  brought  into  China 
from  India  in  the  year  6t,  A.D.  Around  the 
chief  temple  are  courts  with  small  apartments 
where  the  nuns  sleep  and  work.  These  women 
are  the  only  inmates  of  the  place.  They  sew 
and  spin,  and  bring  up  children  to  be  nuns  like 
themselves.  These  child-nuns  are  not  such  by 
the  will  of  God,  nor  by  their  own  will  ;  but  they 
are  orphans  by  the  will  of  some  man,  and  nuns 
by  the  will  of  some  woman.  They  are  sold  to 
the  nunnery  when  two  or  three  years  old,  for 
three  or  four  dollars  apiece  ;  and  the  nuns,  each 
buying  as  many  as  she  can  support,  bring  them 
up.  Sometimes  a  nun  thus  has  as  many  as 
twenty  little  girls  under  her  immediate  care, 
and  subject  to  no  authority  but  hers.  The 
nuns,  being  well-to-do  in  the  world,  do  not  take 
such  children  as  would  be  thrown  or  given 
away,  but  buy  those  that  are  past  the  first 
diseases  of  infancy,  and  healthy  and  attractive. 
As  soon  as  the  girls  are  old  enough,  they  are 
taught  to  weave  and  embroider  and  read.  A 
good  teacher  is  employed  to  instruct  them,  and 
they  often  become  fine  scholars. 

At  fifteen,  the  little  girl  ceases  to  eat  animal 


r.UniMTIST    NUNS.  Ill 

food,  has  her  head  clean-shaven,  and  puts  on 
the  dress  of  a  nun.  It  is  said  that  no  coercion 
is  used  in  keeping  girls  in  the  nunnery,  but  that 
none  of  them  ever  choose  to  leave  it  and  return 
to  their  parents.  They  are  much  more  comfort- 
able in  the  nunnery  than  they  could  be  with 
the  poverty-stricken  parents  who  sold  them. 

The  nuns  frequently  make  long  excursions 
in  their  own  boats,  bringing  home  boat-loads 
of  fruits  or  vegetables.  They  weave  with  skill, 
and  embroider  exquisitely,  and  are  almost  the 
only  women  who  know  how  to  read.  They 
are  called  to  chant  at  death-beds,  to  dispel  the 
evil  influences  in  streets  and  houses,  and  re- 
ceive pay  for  special  petitions  to  their  gods. 
Their  incomes  are  large  and  their  lives  easy. 
Taken  together,  they  appear  strong,  portly,  and 
comfortable  beyond  other  Chinese  women. 

The  nunneries  are  regarded  with  reverence 
by  the  ignorant  and  superstitious,  but  it  is 
whispered  among  the  wise  that  they  are  not 
the  religious  and  respectable  haunts  they  nomi- 
nally represent.  We  hear  not  infrequently  of  a 
nunnery's  having  been  broken  up  by  the  civil 
authorities,  on  account  of  its  vice. 

In  a  country  where  no  census  is  taken,  and 
no  statistics  compiled,  it  is  difficult  to  ascertain 


112  ■      PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

the  number  of  nuns  in  the  population.  But  one 
sees  a  dozen  nunneries  within  a  clay's  journey  ; 
and  in  one  forenoon  I  visited  three  nunneries, 
having  a  hundred  nuns  in  them  all.  The  abbess 
in  one  of  them  was  seventy-five  years  old  and 
had  been  in  the  nunnery  seventy-two  years. 
All  the  women  with  whom  I  privately  spoke 
had  been  in  the  nunnery  from  infancy.  The 
friendly  old  abbess  gave  me  every  opportunity 
to  speak  of  what  she  called  "God's  doctrines," 
but  when  I  suggested  that  'a  native  female 
teacher  might  come  and  stay  there  a  few  days, 
she  responded  that  it  would  be  wholly  contrary 
to  the  customs  of  the  place  should  she  allow 
any  meat-eater  to  lodge  there.  She  said  she 
herself  was  old  and  had  laid  by  enough  to  live 
on  and  so  she  could  believe  my  words ;  but  the 
other  nuns  could  not  believe,  because,  if  they 
did,  they  w^ould  have  nothing  to  eat.  She  would 
herself  come  to  my  home  and  be  taught,  and 
I  could  come  and  tell  my  doctrine  to  the  nuns, 
and  they  could  judge  for  themselves  whether  it 
were  something  for  which  it  were  worth  while 
to  starve. 


CHAPTER    XV. 


LOAX-ASSOCIATIONS. 


A  coM:\rox  method  of  raising  money  with 
which  to  meet  a  pecuniary  emergency  is  to 
form  a  loan-society.  This  society  is  tempo- 
rary and  voluntary,  and  its  benefits  are  equal 
among  its  members.  The  capital  invested  in 
it  varies  from  one  dollar  to  three  hundred  dol- 

113 


I  14  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

lars  and  the  number  of  members  from  three 
to  twenty.  The  leader  in  the  formation  of  the 
company  is  its  president,  who  must  make  good 
all  losses  to  its  members.  He  is  therefore  care- 
ful in  admitting  persons  and  must  himself  pos- 
sess that  wherewith  to  meet  his  responsibilities. 
Both  men  and  women  form  such  associations, 
each  sex  by  itself  unless  the  association  be 
limited  to  a  single  family  circle.  The  occasion 
of  its  formation  may  be  the  buying  of  a  field 
or  a  coffin  or  a  wife,  the  setting  up  of  a  shop, 
the  paying  of  a  debt,  or  the  expense  of  a  law- 
suit. The  one  who  wants  to  use  a  certain  sum 
of  money  goes  among  his  friends  and  finds 
who  will  join  the  loan-society.  He  gives  in- 
formation to  each,  concerning  the  names  of 
others  who  will  join,  the  amount  of  each  share 
and  the  time  of  payment.  He  then  makes  a 
supper  to  which  all  the  members  of  the  society 
are  invited,  and  each  guest  lends  the  host 
one  share.  In  a  month,  a  half-year,  or  at 
whatever  time  has  been  agreed  upon,  every 
member,  except  the  president,  bids  on  the  next 
loan,  and  he  who -bids  highest  gets  it.  The 
bids  are  sealed  and  are  opened  by  the  presi- 
dent in  the  presence  of  all  the  members.  The 
highest  bidder  at  once  pays  the  amount  bid  to 


LOAN-ASSOCIATIONS.  I  I  5 

each  member,  except  him  who  has  already  had 
the  loan,  and  every  member  then  pays  to  this 
highest  bidder  a  sum  equal  to  what  each  paid 
before  to  the  president.  So  the  loan  continues 
to  circulate,  each  who  has  not  yet  received  it 
being  allowed  to  bid,  and  no  one  who  has  once 
had  it  being  allowed  to  bid  a  second  time. 
Those  who  have  once  had  the  loan  receive  no 
interest  and  the  one  who  receives  it  last  pays 
no  interest,  in  the  form  of  a  bid,  to  the  others. 

Say  A,  B,  C,  and  D  form  such  a  mutual  loan 
society.  A  gives  a  supper,  costing  perhaps 
twenty  cents,  to  the  other  three,  and  they  each 
pay  A,  say,  one  dollar.  In  a  month,  B,  C,  and 
D  bid  for  the  next  loan,  and  B,  bidding  higher 
than  C  or  D,  pays  them  each  the  amount  he 
has  bid,  say  ten  cents,  and  A,  C,  and  D  each 
pay  B  one  dollar.  The  following  month,  C  bids 
highest  and  secures  the  loan  ;  and  in  the  fourth 
month.  A,  B,  and  C  each  pay  one  dollar  to  D. 
Each  of  the  members  has  now  received  as 
much  as  he  has  paid  out,  less  interest  or  the 
amount  of  his  bid,  and  the  association  is  dis- 
solved. 

I  know  a  farmer,  somewhat  advanced  in 
years,  who  thus  raised  the  money  with  whicli 
he  paid  for  his  wife.     Having  heard,  through   a 


Il6  PACODA    SHADOWS. 

female  relative,  of  a  widow  with  a  young  son, 
who  could  be  secured  by  him  for  twenty-six 
dollars,  he  formed  a  loan-society  of  thirteen 
members,  the  shares  being  two  dollars,  and 
with  the  sum  thus  obtained,  he  paid  for  his 
wife.  Afterward  he  paid  two  dollars  every 
three  months,  to  some  member  of  the  society, 
till  all  were  paid. 

Sometimes  a  woman  wishes  tc;  buy  a  new 
tunic,  and  lacks  the  necessary  cash.  If  she 
expects  money  from  some  source  afterward, 
she  may,  with  two  or  three  of  her  associates, 
form  a  loan-societv  with  shares  of  twenty  cents 
each,  and  buy  the  desired  article,  giving  her 
friends  a  similar  opportunity  to  amass  money 
later  on. 


AN    AMULL.VIOKV    KESTALKANl 


CHAPTER  XVI. 


OUK    APOTHECARY. 


We  have  among  our  church-members  a  thriv- 
iiiii    druggist,    whose     shop    is    in    the    city    of 


Swatow 


Having  ascertained  that. lie  had  time 


and   inclination   to   show  us  his    stock  of  medi- 

H7 


I  15  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

ciiies,  I  went  with  a  friend  to  see  them.  The 
shop,  after  the  manner  of  Chinese  shops,  is 
enclosed  on  three  sides  only,  and  has  the 
whole  front  open  to  the  street.  The  counter 
runs  the  whole  length  of  the  front  of  the  shop, 
except  in  a  narrow  place  left  for  egress,  and 
the  purchaser  is  expected  to  stand  in  the  street, 
and  ask  over  the  counter  for  what  he  wants. 
The  cases  for  drugs,  which  cover  the  inner 
wall,  can  be  touched  with  one  hand  while  the 
counter  is  reached  with  the  other.  The  stock 
on  hand  is  valued  at  about  a  thousand  dollars, 
and  many  a  shop  with  goods  of  greater  value 
would  be  no  less  narrow.  Behind  and  above 
the  shop,  the  druggist's  family  (consisting  of  his 
wife,  three  children,  and  two  clerks)  live,  and 
exercise  hospitality  toward  travelling  church- 
members,  in  a  space  scarcelywider  than  a  hay- 
wagon. 

]\Iany  villagers  come  to  Swatow  on  business  ; 
and,  though  foreigners  have  been  visible  in  its 
streets  for  twenty  years,  there  are  always  those 
who  think  one  a  curiosity  worth  observing,  so 
we  had  been  in  the  shop  but  a  few  minutes 
when  the  whole  front  was  lined  w^ith  silent  and 
interested  gazers  at  the  two  foreign  ladies  who 
had  come  to  look  at  the  native  drugs.     More- 


OTK    Al'OTlll-.CAKV.  1  IQ 

over,  the  wife  was  makiii<;  tea  and  filling  the 
plaee  with  the  smoke  from  lier  open  and  pipe- 
less  furnaee.  These  discomforts,  added  "to  the 
heat  of  a  summer  afternoon  on  the  Tropic  of 
Cancer,  caused  us  to  relinquish  our  design  of 
making  an  accurate  list  in  Chinese  and  English 
of  all  the  drugs,  and  to  take  note  of  only  those 
which  were  especially  curious. 

Among  a  great  variety  of  barks,  tubers,  bulbs, 
roots,  leaves,  and  seeds,  we  found,  in  separate 
compartments,  the  stamens,  petals,  and  seed- 
vessels  of  the  lotus  ;  unhusked  rice  and  wheat, 
sprouted  and  then  dried;  the  flower  of  the 
honeysuckle  ;  the  leaves  of  the  arbor-vitae  ;  vari- 
ous species  of  sea-weed  ;  bones  of  the  cuttle- 
fish ;  the  cast  skins  of  locusts  ;  the  pith  of  a 
large  reed  ;  dried  caterpillars,  snails,  and  worms  ; 
fungi  from  decayed  wood  ;  chrysalides  of  moths 
and  butterflies  ;  scales  of  the  armadillo  ;  shav- 
ings of  goat,  ibex,  and  deer  horn  ;  skin  of  the 
rhinoceros  and  the  elephant  ;  charred  tigers' 
bones  ;  silk-worms  ;  the  shell  of  the  box-turtle; 
the  gall-bladder  of  a  bear,  valued  at  ten  dollars, 
and  used  as  a  tonic  ;  the  horn  of  a  rhinoceros, 
valued  at  three  dollars  for  a  piece  three  inches 
in  its  largest  diameter  ;  centipedes,  six  inches 
long,  stretched  and  dried  on  splints  ;  medicated 


120  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

tea  in  small,  hard  cakes,  used  in  infusion  as  a 
sudorific. 

Our  obliging  host  said  there  were  many  other 
drugs  in  the  shop,  among  them  seed-pearls 
and  snake-skins  and  minerals  ;  but  we  had  not 
time  to  see  them  all,  and  having  bought  a 
box  of  medicated  tea,  and  five  tiny  bottles  of 
crystallized  peppermint-oil,  we  took  our  depart- 
ure. 

The  Chinese  have  little  knowledge  of  anat- 
omy, physiology,  or  hygiene,  and  do  not  practise 
surgery  ;  but  four  thousand  years  of  experience 
have  given  them  some  just  ideas  concerning  the 
uses  of  herbs,  and  they  often  apply  these  with 
great  skill  in  poultices  and  in  teas.  No  such 
thing  is  known  as  a  medical  education,  but  every 
literary  man  is  more  or  less  a  physician.  Spe- 
cialists are  common.  Some  families  have  a 
knowledge  how  to  cure  a  particular  disease,  and 
this  knowledge  is  kept  a  secret  and  is  handed 
down  as  an  heirloom  from  generation  to  gener- 
ation. 

One  of  my  native  acquaintances  is  wholly 
deaf  in  one  ear,  and  the  cause  of  her  deafness 
is  a  fair  specimen  of  Chinese  medical  diagnosis. 
Years  ago  this  woman  caught  a  severe  cold, 
followed  by   much   headache.     She  went    to  a 


OUK    ArOTHECAKV.  121 

Chinese  doctor  for  advice  and  was  told  that  her 
headache  was  caused  by  a  disease,  in  the  form 
of  a  small  kernel  in  her  head,  and  that  the  only 
way  to  cure  her  would  be  to  let  the  disease  out 
through  a  hole  made  either  in  her  eye  or  her  ear. 
She  thought  it  better  to  lose  the  latter ;  and  so, 
instead  of  having  her  eyeball  punctured,  she 
had  her  ear  deeply  probed,  breaking  the  tym- 
panum. She  has  been  deaf  ever  since,  but  the 
headaches  were  not  cured. 


1 

1 

^9a   i 

1 

'-■Kb 

i  m 

r"  ^^^S 

A    K1VEK-:UNK. 


CHAPTER  XVI T. 


KAMBLIXdS. 


Ix  Southern  China,  all  travelling  is  done  in 
boats,  in  sedan-chairs,  or  on  foot,  and  the  rate 
of  speed  seldom  averages  above  three  miles  an 
hour,  by  any  mode  of  conveyance.  Food  and 
bedding  must  be  included  in   the  luggage,  and 


KAMBLINGS.  123 

the  itinerary  must  be  carefully  })lannecl,  else 
one  may  be  without  shelter  at  nightfall.  Of 
boats,  there  is  a  special  style  for  nearly  every 
stream,  varying  from  the  simplest  raft,  to  the 
elaborately  constructed  and  ornate  junk.  One 
of  medium  size  and  considerable  comfort  is  that 
called  the  ''  Hakka  boat,"  which  has  usually  a 
crew  of  five  men.  It  is  of  fir,  about  fifty  feet  long 
and  eight  feet  wide,  with  a  bold  three  feet  deep, 
over  which  a  flooring  of  loose  boards  is  laid. 
In  the  middle  of  the  boat  are  two  apartments, 
high  enough  to  stand  in,  roofed  semi-circularly 
with  splint  basket-work,  and  thatched  with 
leaves  of  the  edible  bamboo.  The  three  parti- 
tions, forming  the  walls  of  the  two  apartments, 
are  often  grotesquely  carved  and  gorgeously 
painted.  The  tiller  is  a  wide  paddle,  projecting 
ten  feet  behind  the  boat,  after  passing  through 
a  hole  in  an  upright  post  which  turns  on  a 
pivot  in  the  stern.  The  prow  rises,  by  an 
inclined  plane,  si.K  feet  above  the  deck,  and  up 
this  the  boatmen  walk  barefooted,  then  turn 
around,  and  come  back  almost  head  downward, 
each  bearing  his  weight  on  a  long  pole,  one  end 
of  which  is  fixed  against  his  shoulder,  while  the 
other  is  inserted  in  the  sandy  bottom  of  the 
shallow  stream.     Thus  the  boat  is  pushed  for- 


124  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

ward  just  half  as  fast  and  half  as  far  as  the 
boatmen  walk.  In  deeper  water,  the  boat  is 
drawn  aloirg  by  ropes  tied  to  its  mast,  the  boat- 
men walking  in  a  tow-path  on  shore  ;  or  it  is 
rowed,  the  boatman  standing  at  the  oar  as  does 
a  Venetian  gondolier.  When  there  is  a  favora- 
ble wind,  they  set  a  bamboo  mac  perpendicu- 
larly on  the  top  of  the  boat  and  stretch  cloth 
sails  above  and  beside  it.  ^lanv  boats,  sailin£: 
together,  make  a  striking  scene  ;  for,  though 
they  be  torn  and  dirty,  they  are  always,  like 
Italian  beggars,  picturesque  in  their  rags.  The 
boatmen  have  a  peculiar  and  not  unmusical  crv, 
which  the  steersman  shouts  and  the  bowman 
echoes.  This  is  their  manner  of  whistling  for 
the  wind.  Even  with  all  these  diverse  modes 
of  propukion,  progress  is  slow ;  but  if  one  gets 
a  boat  that  is  new,  and  free  from  vermin ;  if  the 
smoke  from  the  cooking,  which  must  be  done 
for  all  on  board,  is  well  shut  off  ;  if  there  are 
no  opium-smokers  among  the  crew  ;  if  no  un- 
savory cargo  has  been  stowed  in  the  hold,  as  a 
private  business  venture  by  the  boatmen  ;  and 
if  the  boat  has  been  carefully  furnished  with 
everything  that  is  necessary  during  the  trip, 
one  may  travel  very  comfortably. 
'  Those    who    travel    by    boat    sleep    in    their 


HAMIUJXGS.  125 

floating  domicile ;  but  those  who  travel  in  a 
sedan -chair  must  seek  lodgings  in  an  inn,  where 
nothing  is  furnished  except  a  bedstead  and  a 
fire  by  which  to  cook.  The  chair  is  usually 
carried  by  two  coolies  ;  but  if  the  occupant  be 
portly,  he  will  soon  be  set  down  with  the  re- 
mark that  a  person  so  highly  favored  by  the 
gods  should  have  three  bearers.  The  chair- 
coolies  are  of  the  lowest  class  in  China,  and  are 
so  obstreperous  and  foul-mouthed  that  one  who 
deals  with  them  in  travelling  soon  comes  to 
believe  that  the  canon  debarring  their  descend- 
ants to  the  third  generation  from  the  literary 
examinations  is  a  reasonable  one,  founded  on 
the  law  of  heredity. 

The  cost  of  boat  and  men  is  about  a  dollar 
a  day,  while  the  cost  of  travel  by  sedan-chair  is 
about  six  cents  per  mile.  A  chair  is  not  always 
to  be  obtained.  A  boat  can  usually  be  secured 
by  a  man,  though  a  woman  may  sometimes  fail 
to  get  passage.  Returning  homeward  from  a 
station  upon  the  Swatow  Bay,  I  one  night  found 
a  head  wind  and  surging  waves  opposing  me. 
After  beating  against  these  until  dark,  my  boat- 
men declared  it  impossible  to  make  any  prog- 
ress, and  said  that  we  must  run  in  beside  the 
shore  and  wait   until  the  wind  should  veer  and 


126  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

the  tide  turn.  I  had  to  decide  whether  I  would 
toss  all  night  where  I  was,  or  call  a  smaller 
boat,  with  strong  oarsmen,  to  take  me  the  re- 
maining three  miles.  I  decided  to  have  a  fish 
ing-boat  called  as  soon  as  one  was  sighted  ;  and, 
after  some  waiting,  a  little  tub  came  along, 
manned  by  three  stalwart  rowers.  A  prolonged 
bargaining  was  terminated  by  their  agreeing  to 
take  one  passenger  to  my  landing-place  for 
twenty-seven  cents.  They  came  alongside,  and 
I  stepped  out  from  my  cabin,  when  suddenly 
the  little  tub  paddled  off  with  might  and  main  ; 
the  rowers  exclaiming  simultaneously  to  each 
other,  "  It  is  a  foreign  lady  !  It  is  a  teacher^j-i"  ! 
It  is  a  ivonian  !''  No  bribe  would  induce  them 
to  return.  Their  grave  response  to  all  ridicule 
of  their  sudden  fright  and  flight  was,  that,  if  they 
were  to  carry  even  so  much  of  womankind  as  a 
female  infant  a  span  long,  their  boat  would  catch 
no  fish  for  many  days  thereafter.  Happily,  we 
were  near  shore  ;  and  with  my  long-known  and 
trusty  steersman  as  "guide,  philosopher,  and 
friend,"  I  sped  on  foot  over  the  hills  to  my 
home. 

In  China,  one  who  cannot  walk  is  subject  to 
perpetual  extortion.  There  as  in  other  coun- 
tries, independence  secures  service  on  reason- 


RAMBLIXGS.  12/ 

able  terms.  The  roads  being  always  narrow 
and  rough,  walking  is  often  the  pleasantest  and 
sometimes  the  only  way  of  reaching  one's  des- 
tination. Pedestrian  tours  are  interesting,  tak- 
ing one  alonjr  the  foot  of  ranges  of  hills  whose 
slopes  are  flecked  with  plantations  of  dark 
green  firs  and  pale  green  pine-apples.  The  fir- 
trees  are  burned  into  charcoal,  and  the  gleam  of 
the  pits  may  be  seen  from  afar  on  dark  nights. 
The  pine-apple  leaves  yield  a  fiber  which  is 
woven  into  coarse  cloth  used  for  summer  gar- 
ments. Paths  only  a  foot  wide  divide  the 
patches  of  rice  and  sugar-cane,  and  border  the 
plots  of  hemp,  pulse,  indigo,  millet,  and  wheat, 
llie  arable  land  is  worth  from  four  to  six  hun- 
dred dollars  an  acre,  and  is  cultivated  with  ex- 
treme economy.  Shallow  streams  must  be 
waded,  or  the  traveller  may  be  carried  across 
pick-a-back  by  a  good-natured  and  strong  com- 
panion. Neither  natives  nor  foreigners  can 
safely  rely  on  friendly  offices  of  any  sort  among 
strangers,  but  from  acquaintances  the  utmost 
courtesy  may  be  expected.  The  poorest  offer 
hot  boiled  sweet-potatoes,  begging  the  wayfarer 
to  stay  his  stomach  with  their  scanty  fare,  while 
those  of  larger  means  prepare  a  feast  and  urge 
a  prolonged   stay      In    every  case  the  hostess 


128  PAGODA    SHADOW?. 

immediately  proceeds  to  make  tea,  and  no  pro- 
testations can  persuade  her  to  forego  tiiis  cus- 
tomary sign  of  welcome.  She  is  apt  to  light 
the  fire  in  a  chimneyless  earthen  stove  in  a  cor- 
ner of  the  room,  filling  the  whole  apartment  with 
smoke.  When  the  tea  is  made,  it  is  offered 
with  confectionery,  peanut-candy,  or  parched 
rice  cohering  in  a  mixture  of  sugar  and  lard. 
If  the  guest  was  expected,  she  is  sure  to  offer 
also  hot  soup,  consisting  of  sweet  syrup  in 
which  pellets  of  dough  or  whole  eggs  are  float- 
ing. When  the  traveller  goes  on  his  wav. 
some  members  of  the  household  accompany 
him  on  the  road.  He  begs  them  not  to  go 
a  mile,  and  they  go  with  him  twain,  and  can 
hardly  be  induced  to  turn   back. 

On  the  way  from  Toa  Pho,  I  saw  a  woman 
o^oino^  alonsf  the  street  wailins^  aloud.  She  was 
hobbling  slowly  on  her  bound  feet,  supported 
by  a  long  staff,  and  was  telling  her  wrongs  in  a 
piercing  wail.  A  native  preacher  who  was  with 
me,  although  unacquainted  with  the  person  or 
the  place,  at  once  informed  me  that  the  woman 
was  a  widow  who  had  had  her  husband's  prop- 
erty taken  from  her  by  his  brothers.  She  was, 
after  the  manner  of  women  thus  wronged,  ap- 
pealing to  the  public  for  redress.     That  portion 


KAMI}  LINGS. 


129 


of  the  public  seen  by  me,  paid  no  attention  to 
her,  but  went  silently  on  with  its  i)revious  oc- 
cupations. It  is  not  the  habit  of  Chinese 
people  to  put  forth  any  chi\alrous  effort  in  be- 
half of  the  unfortunate. 

Passing  through  a  street   in  Kui  Su,  we  were 
followed   by   a    beggar   whose  clothes   scarcely 
covered  his  begrimed  body.     But    he    did    not 
rely   solely    on   his   wretched  looks  in   o-ettin^-- 
money  from   people.      He   stretched   one   hand 
for   alms  and    extended    the    other    filled    with 
writhing  snakes.     Timid  people  soon  paid  him 
for    going    away.      It    seems    that    sympathy 
is    not  a    fund    whereon    beggars    may  largely 
draw,   and  so  they  make  themselves   so   horri- 
ble   that    shopkeepers    and    householders    will 
quickly    give    something    to    be    rid    of    them. 
One    is    frequently  seen   with    his   tongue   pro- 
truded as  far  as  possible,  and  a  knife  apparently 
stuck    vertically    through    it.      Besmeared  with 
blood  from   head  to  feet,  he  is  sufficiently  dis- 
gusting   to    make    even    those    who    know    the 
knife  to  be  a  sham,  willing  to  hasten  him  out 
of  sight  at  any  cost.      Sometimes  beggars  bring 
heavy  stones  with  them,  and  lying  down  upon 
the  doorstep,  drop  these  stones  from  the  arm's- 
length  upon  their  own  chests,  wailing  until  the 


130  r.\(.<)i).\   SHADOWS. 

master  of  the  house  gives  them  the  cash  they 
seek. 

In  going  by  chair  to  Kau  Lam,  the  road  was 
so  narrow  that  the  leaves  of  the  sugar-cane, 
growing  in  the  fields  on  either  hand,  often 
swept  both  sides  of  the  chair  at  once  ;  and  if 
we  met  another  traveller  he  or  we  must  leave 
the  road  in  order  to  pass.  In  going  fifteen 
miles  we  went  through  thirty  five  villages,  and 
this  is  one  of  the  most  sparsely  populated  por- 
tions of  the  country.  In  going  up  the  river, 
we  counted  sixty-seven  villages  within  view 
while  our  boat  was  mo\-ing  three  miles  ;  and 
from  a  hill  two  hundred  feet  above  the  plain, 
we  counted  eighty-five  villages  dotting  the  rice- 
fields.  Some  of  these  villages  have  a  popula- 
tion of  ten  thousand  or  more,  and  cities  of 
from  thirty  to  three  hundred  thousand  are  not 
distant. 

At  Hue  Sua  I  asked  old  Sui,  the  first  woman 
in  that  region  to  accept  Christianity,  how  many 
Christian  women  there  were  in  the  community. 
She  said  there  were  twenty,  and  gave  the 
name,  age,  and  place  of  residence  of  each. 
Four  of  the  number  were  in  heaven.  I  went 
over  the  list  and  said  "Then  there  are  sixteen 
women  who  are  members  of  the  church  here." 


RAM  CLINGS.  I3I 

"Aye,"  said  Sui,  "tlicrc  are  twenty."  I  re- 
marked, that  I  had  seen  twelve  of  the  si.xteen, 
and  Sui  responded,  "Aye,  teacheress,  you  have 
seen  twelve  of  the  twenty."  Like  Words- 
worth's little  maid,  she  had  her  way,  and  always 
eounted  the  sisters  who  were  in  heaven. 

On  arriving  at  Kau  Lam  we  found  the  family 
of  the  old  preacher  Tue  expecting  us,  and  they 
had  cleaned  house  for  our  benefit.  The  rubbish 
had  all  been  removed  from  the  middle  of  the 
floor  to  the  corners,  and  the  village  school,  kept 
by  a  Christian,  had  been  dismissed  two  days 
earlier  than  its  usual  vacation,  that  we  mijzht 
sleep  in  the  school-house  and  receive  our  many 
visitors  there.  During  all  our  stay,  our  domicile 
was  filled  with  eager  observers  of  the  strange 
foreign  guests,  and  many  of  these  became  at- 
tentive pupils.  Tue's  family  made  manifest  the 
great  difference  between  monotheists  and  i)a- 
gans.  Living  in  a  hamlet  where  all  the  dwell- 
ings are  merely  huts  built  of  sun-dried  blocks  of 
mud,  with  the  same  dress,  the  same  blood,  the 
same  cares  as  their  neighbors,  they  are  so 
superior  to  their  kin  as  to  seem  to  be  of  a  dif- 
ferent race.  The  kindness  which  marks  the 
intercourse  of  the  members  of  the  family,  their 
courtesy,  their  morality,  their  intelligence,   the 


132  PAGUDA    ;^HAI)()\VS. 

considerate  way  in  which  its  men  treat  its 
women,  all  show  the  effect  of  Christianity 
acting  upon  them  through  more  than  one  gen- 
eration. If  those  who  in  Christian  lands  de- 
spise and  malign  Christ,  should  suddenly  have 
taken  from  them  all  the  good  that  has  come  to 
them  through  him,  with  what  bitter  repentance 
would  they  bewail  their  loss  !  Those  who  have 
not  lived  in  countries  where  his  light  has  never 
shined,  cannot  fully  realize  how  much  of  the 
brightness  and  sweetness  of  their  lives  is  the 
result  of  his  influence  in  the  world. 

The  ancestor  of  the  two  thousand  persons 
living  in  Kau  Lam,  came  to  that  place  from 
some  other  region  about  two  hundred  years 
ago.  He  married  and  had  two  sons  whose 
descendants  all  these  people  are.  As  Chinese 
law  forbids  the  marriage  of  those  having  the 
same  surname,  the  men  of  this  clan  go  to  other 
villao-es  to  sfet  their  wives,  and  marrv  their 
daughters  to  men  of  other  tribes.  It  is  said 
that  almost  as  many  men  of  this  clan  have  gone 
abroad  as  have  stayed  at  home.  .At  a  small 
estimate,  the  single  ancestor  of  this  clan  has  now 
three  thousand  living  descendants. 

On  the  wav  to  Po  Chan,  we  visited  the  grave 
of  a  church-member  who  had  lately  died.     His 


kAMRLIXGS. 


J.-) 


name  was  Faithful  and  ihere  was  much  about 
liini  beside  his  name  to  remind  one  of  his  pro- 
totype in  "Pilgrim's  Progress."  He  lived  in  a 
great  and  wicked  city,  surrounded  by  persecut- 
ing" heathen,  his  business  constantly  hindered 
and  his  life  sometimes  endangered  by  his  un- 
wavering adherence  to  a  religion  unlike  that  of 
his  neighbors  He  never  swerved  in  his  alle- 
giance to  his  Lord,  and  he  has  gained  the  reward 
that  is  for  those  who  endure  to  the  end.  Many 
of  the  Christians  when  about  to  die,  give  orders 
that  the  words  "A  disciple  of  Jesus'"  shall  be 
graven  on  their  tombstones.  Such  was  the  last 
request  of  Faithful  ;  but  his  son  disregarded  his 
wish  and  there  is  naught  but  pagan  symbols  on 
the  stone.  That  does  not  matter.  When  the 
Lord  comes  to  gather  his  elect  from  the  four 
corners  of  the  earth,  he  will  know  without  con- 
sidering epitaphs  where  to  look  for  his  own. 

A  few  years  ago,  Faithful,  who  was  a  sugar- 
merchaiU,  went  to  Shanghai  on  business.  When 
he  returned,  he  came  to  see  me  and  I  asked 
him  if  while  he  was  in  Shanghai  he  went  to 
any  of  the  chapels  there,  or  met  any  of  the 
native  Christians.  He  rei)lied  that  one  day 
when  he  had  leisure  he  went  and  found  a 
chapel,  and    there  was  an    old  man  in   it  who 


134  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

appeared  to  l:)c  a  preacher,  and  that  he  sat  and 
talked  with  him  for  two  hours  and  enjoyed  it 
very  much.  "  But,"  said  I,  "  you  do  not  speak 
the  Shane;hai  dialect,  and  the  old  man  in  the 
chapel  did  not  speak  the  Swatow  dialect,  so  you 
and  he  could  not  understand  each  other  in  talk- 
ing." "  Oh,"  responded  r\iithful,  "  it  is  true 
that  I  could  not  speak  his  language  nor  he 
mine  ;  but  when  he  said  /ts^/s  I  knew  what  he 
was  talking  about,  and  when  I  said  Jesus  I 
could  tell  by  the  way  he  nodded  his  head  that 
he  understood  me,  and  so  we  talked  for  two 
hours  together,  and  I  did  erjjoy  it  very  much." 

Mr.  Ong,  who  walked  to  Po  Chan"  with  me, 
pointed  out  with  great  cheerfulness  on  the  way 
a  hillock  where  he  intended  to  immediately 
build  a  tomb  for  himself  and  wife.  The  provi- 
dent Chinese  prepare  such  things  long  before 
they  expect  to  use  them.  On  my  returning 
home  from  a  two  weeks'  trip,  my  cook  smil- 
ingly informed  me  that  he  had  taken  advantage 
of  the  leisure  afforded  by  my  absence,  and  had 
had  two  excellent  coffins  made,  and  had  pre- 
sented them  to  his  grandparents,  who  had 
received  these  testimonials  with  much  satis- 
faction, and  had  bestowed  on  him  much  praise 
for  his  filial  piety. 


RAMDLINGS.  135 

Going  one  morning  to  a  village  that  lies 
among  steep  barren  hills,  whose  slopes  are 
covered  with  bowlders  that  seem  to  be  moving 
downward  in  a  slow,  mighty  torrent,  I  saw  on 
the  outskirts  an  old  woman  gathering  herbs. 
She  said  she  was  going  to  make  a  wash  for  her 
daughter  inlaw's  sore  eyes,  and  she  asked  me  if 
I  had  any  medicine  that  would  cure  blindness. 
I  told  her  I  would  go  to  her  house  and  there 
tell  her  what  sort  of  medicine  I  had,  and  she 
led  me  to  her  home,  a  new  and  almost  clean 
white  hut  among  many  brown  and  ill-smelling 
ones.  Her  neighbors  saw  us  going  in,  and  many 
of  them,  with  small  dirty  children  in  their  arms, 
crowded  in  to  inquire  what  remedy  I  could  offer 
for  their  varied  ills.  They  were  deeply  inter 
ested  in  hearing  about  a  revealed  and  not  dis 
tant  country  in  which  there  is  no  more  pain. 
That  country  seemed  very  attractive  to  me  also, 
as  a  boy  just  as  high  as  my  shoulder  kept  rub 
bing  his  frowzy  head  thereon,  while  a  smaller 
child  tried  to  thrust  his  grimy  little  pate  under 
my  arm,  and  an  old  woman,  a  leper  from  head 
to  foot,  stood  before  me  persistently  endeavor- 
ing to  clasp  my  hands,  and  asserting  that  I  had 
grown  old  fast  since  she  last  saw  me. 

Passing  on  to  another  village,  I  told  a  woman 


136  PAr.ODA    SHADOWS. 

who  sat  at  her  door  making  sweet-potato  flour, 
that  I  liad  a  pleasant  and  important  message 
for  her,  which  I  would  communicate  if  she 
would  exclude  all  the  men  and  children  and 
admit  all  the  women  who  should  come  to  the 
door.  She  at  once  assented,  and  I  stationed 
two  boatmen  at  the  entrance  to  assist  in  carry- 
ing out  the  arrangement.  This  is  the  only 
plan  by  which  I  can  secure  quiet  congrega- 
tions. The  children  swarm  like  locusts,  and 
unless  thev  are  firml\-  excluded  they  take  up 
the  room  which  may  be  filled  by  more  apprecia- 
tive hearers,  and  by  their  noise  and  squabbling 
make  teaching  difficult.  When  the  women  see 
that  national  notions  of  propriety  are  adhered 
to,  and  that  no  men  are  admitted  to  our  pres- 
ence, they  come  pouring  in  from  the  doorways 
around,  and  we  have  those  hearers  who  most 
need  us,  and  whom  we  can  most  effectively 
leach  So  it  was  in  this  house.  Ten  women 
sat  down  to  listen,  and  others  stood  peering  in 
at  the  door,  loo  timid  or  too  much  prejudiced 
against  new  notions  for  a  nearer  approach. 
One  old  woman  listened  with  peculiar  earnest- 
ness, and  several  times  asked  me  to  repeat  a 
sentence  that  she  might  remember  it  after  I 
was  o^one.     When  our  session  was  finnllv  broken 


RAMIiLfXGS. 


d/ 


up  by  the  men-folk  coming  in  with  farm  prod- 
uce, this  old  \vt)man  hobbled  slowly  off  home- 
ward, and  as  she  went  I  heard  her  saying,  as  if 
to  fix  the  name  firmly  in  her  memory,  "Jesus, 
the  Lord  ;  Jesus,  the  Lord  ;  Jesus,  the  Lord." 
She  had  never  heard  this  name  before,  and 
perhaps  she  will  never  hear  it  again  ;  but  it  may 
be  that  when  she  is  about  to  cross  over  into 
the  next  world,  she  will  there  on  the  border 
of  that  vast,  unknown  region,  recall  this  name 
and  cry  out  for  "Jesus,  the  Lord,"  and  that 
he  who  when  on  earth  never  failed  to  respond 
to  such  a  call  will  come  and  take  her  into  his 
kingdom. 


CHAPTER    XVIII. 

NATIVE    FEMALE    EVANGELISTS. 

It  would  seem  that  woman  ought  to  be  fore- 
most in  obedience  to  all  Christ's  commands, 
including  the  Great  Commission,  because  for 
woman  he  does  more  than  for  man.  The  next 
world's  glory  is  promised  alike  to  both  sexes  ; 
but  in  this  world  the  benefits  of  His  Salvation 
are  experienced  more  fully  by  woman,  who, 
where  brute  force  dominates,  is  always  in  un- 
just subjection.  I  think  that  women  owe  what 
is  most  precious  in  their  lives  to  Jesus  of  Naza- 
reth. The  fact  that  there  are  some  women 
in  the  world  to-day  who  need  dread  no  wrong, 
who  may  partake  of  any  intellectual  good  the 
^arth  offers,  who  are  sure  of  the  utter  loyalty 
of  those  who  are  theirs,  is  due  to  the  fact  that 
eighteen  hundred  years  ago  the  Son  of  God 
came  down  among  men.  Of  all  ingrates  there 
is    none    so    traitorous   as   is   she  who  fails  to 


NATIVE    FEMALE    EVANGELISTS.  1 39 

acknowledge  her  indebtedness  to  the  Christ 
who  has  given  her,  what  no  pagan  woman 
possesses,  security  in  her  rights  as  a  human 
being  without  regard  to  her  personal  power  to 
maintain  them.  A  true  Christianity  can  never 
debar  woman  from  showing  her  gratitude  to 
her  Saviour  by  setting  him  forth  as  the  true 
and  sufficient  Helper  of  her  sex,  both  for  the 
life  that  now  is  and  the  life  that  is  to  come. 
A  true  missionary  spirit  strives  to  give  the 
gospel  to  the  neediest,  ^and  women  are  the 
neediest  in  heathen  lands. 

Since  we  do  this  work  in  obedience  to  the 
command,  "  Go,  preach  the  gospel  to  every 
creature,"  we  may  justly  infer  that  the  method 
which  brings  the  gospel  to  the  greatest  number 
of  creatures,  is  that  which  our  Lord  would  think 
the  best.  There  are  many  methods  which  are 
good  ;  but  the  question  is  not  what  is  good,  but 
what  is  best ;  not  how  we  can  do  something 
for  the  salvation  of  the  heathen,  but  how  we 
can  do  our  uttermost  with  a  given  amount 
of  strength  and  money.  There  are  in  China 
two  millions  of  pagans  to  every  Protestant 
missionary.  Of  the  two  hundred  missionary 
ladies  in  China,  so  many  are  prevented  by 
domestic   cares,  by  ill   health,  and   by  lack  of 


140  rAGODA    SHADOWS. 

knowledge  of  the  language,  from  engaging  in 
direct  missionary  work,  that  the  proportion 
of  heathen  women  to  each  working  missionary 
lady  is  several  millions.  1\  there  be  no  plan 
by  which  one  missionary  lady  can  give  a  knowl- 
edge of  Christ  to  many  thousands  of  heathen 
women,  then  there  is  no  hope  of  the  evangel- 
ization of  China  for  generations  to  come. 

Never  were  women  more  needy  than  are 
these  Chinese  women.  Their  homes,  the  homes 
of  a  third  of  the  human  race,  are  windowless, 
floorless,  and  ceilingless.  They  are  very  hot 
in  summer,  very  cold  in  winter,  dank  and  dark 
all  the  year  round.  They  are  small  because  of 
poverty  ;  low,  for  safety  from  typhoons ;  unven- 
tilated,  because  openings  would  give  ingress  to 
the  long  hooks  of  thieves  ;  densely  crowded 
together  for  mutual  protection ;  opening  only 
on  tiny  courts  and  narrow  streets,  where  all 
filth  fumes  because  every  iota  must  be  saved 
for  fertilizing  the  rice-fields. 

Villages  so  made  up  and  surrounded  by  walls 
to  keep  out  marauders,  are  but  a  few  minutes' 
walk  from  each  other,  all  over  the  land.  From 
such  a  home,  to  such  a  home,  a  woman  is 
brought  and  married  to  a  man  she  has  never 
before  seen,   to  serve  a  mother-in-law  who   is 


NATIVK    K K.MALE    EVANGELISTS.  I4I 

kind  to  her  in  proi)ortion  to  her  diligence  in 
rearing  pigs,  and  her  aptness  in  bearing  sons. 
The  greater  portion  of  the  women  have  seen 
only  the  village  in  which  they  were  born,  and 
that  into  which  they  are  married.  All  the 
world  outside  is  as  unknown  to  them  as  is 
the  planet  Mars.  Toward  the  life  to  come 
they  look  blankly,  hoping  only  that  their  male 
descendants  will  feed  their  wandering  spirits, 
after  death,  with  earthly  food. 

The  Chinese  women  are  grave  and  patient 
women.  Of  all  in  the  world,  there  are  none 
to  whom  a  knowledge  of  the  way  of  salvation 
would  be  a  more  blessed  boon,  and  none  more 
capable  of  appreciating  and  using  the  gift.  As 
hardly  any  Chinese  women  know  how  to  read, 
as  the  old  women  rarely  leave  their  villages, 
and  the  young  women  seldom  leave  their  own 
houses,  the  only  way  to  carry  the  gospel  "  to 
every  creature  "  among  them,  is  to  take  it  by 
a  living  voice  into  their  homes.  Native  senti- 
ment, and  custom  which  is  doubtless  correct, 
forbid  the  doing  of  this  work  by  meiL 
Women,  and  women  only,  may  do  it  effec- 
tively. Native  social  customs  permit  elder- 
ly women  to  go  freely  from  house  to  house 
and  from  village    to  village,   and    there    is    no 


14-  I'AGODA    SHADOWS. 

limit  to  tlic  number  of  women  who  may  be 
reached  and  taught  by  such.  This  is  Scriptu- 
ral, and  it  is  so  cheap  that  we  might  almost 
hope  that  with  only  the  number  of  foreign 
workers  which  Christendom  could  send,  and 
only  that  amount  of  money  which  Christian 
women  could  give,  the  gospel  could  be  made 
known  to  every  woman  in  China.  The  selec- 
tion, training,  and  superintendence  of  native 
Christian  women  who  do  this  work,  is  probably 
the  way  in  which  the  foreign  missionary  lady 
can  effect  most  in  the  work  of  evangelizing 
Asia. 

A  large  amount  of  work  must  be  done  by 
the  foreign  missionary  lady  before  the  training 
of  native  female  evaniielists  can  well  be  be2:un. 
Usually  the  native  Christians  are  scattered  over 
a  wide  region,  in  towns  and  hamlets  remote 
from  each  other  and  from  the  missionary  resi- 
dence, so  that  in  order  to  become  acquainted 
with  them  she  is  obliged  to  make  difficult  and 
wearisome  journeys.  Only  in  this  way  can  she 
learn  the  exact  condition  of  her  people,  and 
gain  such  familiarity  with  the  field  itself  that 
she  can  definitely  and  wisely  direct  the  native 
women  when  they  are  engaged  iii,_their  work. 
In  this  way  too  she  ascertains  the  needs  of  the 


NATIVE    FEMALE    EVANGELISTS.  I43 

masses  of  heathen  women,  and  comes  to  know 
what  is  the  kind  and  amount  of  education  re 
quired  by  the  evangelists  in  order  to  render 
them  most  useful. 

When  the  amount  to  be  expended  is  limited, 
it  is  important  that  much  care  be  exercised  in 
the  selection  of  the  women  to  be  taught,  and 
that  they  may  be  such  as  will  convey  to  others 
the  knowledge  that  is  given  to  themselves.  I 
have  found  it  best  not  to  take  into  my  class 
those  who  offer  themselves  as  pupils  ;  but  to 
seek  out,  and  invite  to  it,  those  whose  charac- 
ter is  such  as  to  recommend  them  for  the  work. 
Even 'when  the  allowance  given  for  food  was  so 
low  as  not  to  tempt  even  the  most  needy  to 
enter  the  class  for  the  food's  sake,  some  who 
thought  the  school  house  pleasanter  than  their 
own  houses,  or  who  had  domestic  troubles  that 
they  wished  to  get  away  from,  or  who  hoped 
that  their  absence  from  home  might  bring  an 
obdurate  mother-in-law  to  terms,  came  as  appli- 
cants for  admission  to  the  school.  Only  when 
thoroughly  acquainted  with  the  women  invited 
to  join  the  class,  can  one  feel  sure  that  she  is 
spending  her  time  and  money  on  those  who  are 
seeking  the  Truth  solely  for  the  Truth's  sake. 
We  have  the  joy  of  finding  many  such  in  our 


144  r.AGODA    SHADOWS. 

classes,  and  such  will  and  do  remain  steadfast 
through  much  hardship  in  the  work  to  which 
they  are  called.  Even  when  reasonable  care 
is  taken  in  the  selection  of  the  women  to  be 
trained,  fully  half  of  those  who  are  tried,  are 
found  to  be  incompetent  for  the  work.  Many 
are  dismissed  on  account  of  physical  weakness, 
or  bad  temper,  or  duplicity,  or  an  inability  to 
deliver  the  gospel  message  plainly.  Some  study 
a  few  months  and  then  return  to  their  homes 
to  be  more  joyous  and  intelligent  Christians  all 
their  lives  ;  some  study  for  years  and  grow  in 
crrace  in  a  wonderful  wav. 

Of  a  hundred  women  admitted  to  my  own 
training-school  at  Swatow  during  ten  years, 
about  one-third  became  capable  of  aptly  in- 
structing others. 

There  are  many  difficulties  and  dangers  in 
the  work  of  training  native  female  evangelists. 
It  is  hard  for  us,  whose  social  life  and  modes 
of  thought  are  so  unlike  those  of  the  Chinese, 
to  obtain  such  intimate  personal  acquaintance 
with  the  native  Christians,  that  w^e  can  accu- 
rately judge  which  of  them  has  that  style 
of  speech  and  character  which  the  Chinese 
themselves  consider  worthy  of  imitation.  The 
women  who    go   out  as  teachers  are  taken  by 


XATIVK    FKMAf.i:    liVAN'GELISTS.  1 45 

the  heathen  as  types  of  the  result  of  a  Chris- 
tian education.  It  is  therefore  of  the  utmost 
importance  that  they  should  be  tolerably  true 
exponents  of  Christian  principles  and  modes 
of  life. 

Though  it  is  true  that  she  who  lives  most 
gracefully  in  a  mansion,  would  be  likely  to  live 
with  truest  dignity  in  a  hut,  the  transposition 
would  be  made  with  much  personal  discomfort. 
So  we  need  be  careful  that  our  course  of  train- 
ing does  not  practically  unfit  these  women  for 
living  in  the  narrow  and  uncleanly  quarters  in 
which  the  masses  of  the  people  dwell.  Even 
tastes  and  habits  which  may  not  in  themselves 
be  admirable,  are  better  left  unchanged  if  the 
changing  of  them  will  in  any  degree  separate 
the  woman  from  those  among  whom  she  is  to 
work.  Some  of  the  most  valuable  work  done 
by  the  Bible-women,  is  done  at  meal-times  and 
in  the  nighttime,  among  the  women  with  whom 
they  eat  and  lodge.  No  one  knows  better  than 
the  Chinese  how  to  get  the  greatest  amount  of 
personal  comfort  out  of  the  smallest  amount 
of  money.  If  we  make  sure  that  our  native 
evangelists  are  able  and  faithful  in  makino- 
known  the  Word  of  God  to  those  around  them, 
we  need  not  fear  that  the  cleanliness  which  is 


146  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

next  to  godliness  will  not  come  to  be  prized  in 
due  time. 

All  this  does  not  mean  that  a  Bible-woman 
is  not  to  be  educated,  but  rather  that  she  is  to 
have  that  sort  of  education  which  fits  her  for 
her  place.  This  is  the  work  ot  years,  both 
for  herself  and  for  her  teacher.  A  purely 
Scriptural  education  does  not  make  one  less 
akin  to  any  human  creature. 

As  the  Bible  is  the  only  book  that  tlie  women 
are  expected  to  teach,  it  is  the  only  one  that 
they  study  ;  and  those  in  any  country  who  have 
seriously  set  to  work  to  master  the  contents  of 
the  Bible  have  found  that  they  need  for  that 
purpose  the  whole  of  every  day  for  a  lifetime. 
The  women  need  to  be  taught  to  use  their  own 
language  with  force  and  fluency  ;  to  read  cor- 
rectly, easily,  and  agreeably  ;  to  speak  clearly, 
truthfully,  and  attractively  ;  and  to  pertinently 
illustrate,  by  parable,  anecdote,  and  proverb,  the 
truth  they  communicate.  They  must  learn  the 
most  effective  manner  of  presenting  the  idea 
of  a  sole  and  true  God,  and  the  uselessness  of 
idols,  and  the  best  wa)'  of  removing  the  fear 
and  dread  of  demons  from  ignorant  and  super- 
stitious minds.  Above  all,  they  must  be  so 
taught  of  God,  that  they  go  forth  to  their 
work  knowing  it  to  be  His  and  theirs. 


NATIVF:    FEMALI-:    KVANGELISTS.  147 

As  they  are  to  teach  those  who  cannot  read, 
it  is  desirable  that  they  themselves  should  be 
orally  instructed,  and  that  the  method  of  teach- 
ing them  should  be  a  constant  practical  exhibi- 
tion of  the  way  in  which  they  are  to  teach- 
others.  They  learn  the  Bible  stories,  orally 
taught,  with  great  rapidity,  and  tell  them  with 
vivacity.  It  is  not  unusual  for  a  woman  who 
has  never  before  learned  to  read,  to  become  able 
in  a  single  year  to  read  the  four  Gospels  and 
the  Book  of  Acts  and  to  tell  from  memory  in 
detail  the  whole  life  of  Christ  with  the  miracles 
and  parables.  Some  of  the  w^omen  become 
eloquent  speakers,  and  I  have  seen  them  hold 
an  audience  of  untaught  women  motionless  and 
attent  for  hours,  even  late  at  night  and  with 
sleeping  children  in  their  laps.  The  women 
from  the  Swatow  school'  go  out  two  and  two, 
for  three  months  at  a  time,  stopping  in  rooms 
prepared  for  them,  and  connected  with  the 
chapels  at  the  various  out-stations,  and  from 
thence  they  go  out  to  teach  in  the  surrounding 
villages.  To  the  nearest  villages  they  go  in  the 
morning  and  return  at  night;  in  the  more  dis- 
tant ones  they  stay  several  days,  if  some  woman 
there  is  pleased  to  hear  their  message  and  will 
therefore   give    them    lodging.       During    three 


148  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

months,  a  pair  of  women  will  thus  teach 
in  from  ten  to  thirty  different  villages.  At 
the  end  of  two  months,  they  return  and  give 
a  report  of  their  work,  and  after  a  week  of 
instruction  and  of  conference,  they  go  out 
again  to  the  same  or  other  stations.  I  visit 
their  stations  as  often  as  possible,  and  never 
send  them  to  any  place  where  I  have  not 
myself  been,  and  of  which  I  do  not  myself 
know  the  condition  and  surroundings.  Each 
Bible-woman  receives  two  dollars  per  month 
and  travelling  expenses.  This  buys  food  and 
clothing  as  good  as,  and  no  better  than,  she 
would  have  at  home.  This  sum  merely  enables 
the  woman  to  leave  her  home  and  do  the  work. 
It  does  not  pay  her  for  the  fatigue  nor  the 
obloquy  she  endures.  She  must  bear  that  for 
Christ's  sake,  and  with  no  earthly  reward. 
Probably  the  worst  methods  of  evangelization 
are  those  which  yield  worldly  advantages  to  the 
evangelist  and  the  disciple.  Converts  brought 
in  through  selfishness,  remain  selfish  to  the 
end,  and  transmit  to  their  spiritual  children 
diseases  that  are  finally  fatal  to  the  church. 

It  is  desirable  that  the  Bible-women,  when 
at  the  country  stations,  should  often  have  en- 
couragement and  advice  from  the  foreign  mis- 


NATIVE    FK.MALi:    HVAXGELISTS.  1 49 

sionary  lad\'.  Their  work  is  so  unlike  anything 
that  the  Chinese  habitually  do  ;  they  meet  with 
so  many  rebuffs  ;  they  are  under  so  many  temp- 
tations to  lag;  they  find  such  real  obstacles 
in  the  way  of  their  usefulness,  that  they  must 
have  hel})  and  guidance  on  the  spot  where 
their  work  lies,  from  some  one  whose  wisdom 
and  zeal  is  greater  than  their  own.  They  dress 
and  live  as  poorly  as  the  poor  women  they 
teach  ;  and  they  endure  much  exposure  to  rain, 
cold,  and  fatigue.  In  a  way  that  is  unknown 
to  all  other  Chinese  women,  they  go  to  places 
distant  from  their  own  homes  and  dwell  among 
strangers.  They  often  suffer  extreme  hardship, 
but  no  Bible-woman  has  ever  given  up  her  work 
because  it  was  hard.  Two  of  the  women  lived 
through  the  hottest  months  of  the  year  in  a 
stable,  because  there  were  numerous  inquirers 
at  a  certain  place  and  no  other  lodgings  than 
the  stable  to  be  procured.  Two  others  were 
badly  beaten  in  a  certain  village,  and  yet, 
before  their  wounds  were  healed,  these  women 
went  back  to  that  village  to  continue  their 
work,  because  its  welfare  demanded  their  pres- 
ence. The  results  of  such  work  cannot  now^ 
be  accurately  computed.  But  when  all  those 
who    have    gone    forth    bearing    precious  seed. 


150  I'AGODA    SHADOWS. 

come  again  with  rejoicing,  these  women  will 
also  come  bringing  their  sheaves,  and  we  shall 
be  amazed  at  the  greatness  of  the  harvest. 

To  sum  up,  the  conclusions  which  I  draw  in 
favor  of  this  plan  of  work  are  chiefly  as  fol- 
lows :  — 

Firstly,  It  enables  us  to  reach  a  large  nniiiber 
of  people  luith  a  very  small  outlay  of  money. 

Secondly,  //  enables  ns  to  use  effectively  the 
very  first  fruits  of  our  missionary  labor  with- 
out being  compelled  to  zuait  for  a  highly  edu- 
cated class  to  be  raised  2ip.  By  this  plan  every 
available  native  talent  can  at  once  be  utilized 
in  the  service  of  the  church,  and  can  be  in- 
creased as  rapidly  as  the  church  increases. 

Thirdly,  This  was  the  Saviour's  own  method 
of  evangelization.  Carefully  chosen,  faithfully 
superintended,  his  disciples,  even  when  they 
be  but  weak  Chinese  women,  may  go  out  at 
his  behest,  and  teach,  and  come  back  saying, 
'*  Even  the  devils  are  subject  unto  us." 


CHAPTER    XIX. 

BIOGRAPIIV    OF    LITTLE    GALE. 

When  little  Gale  was  born,  nobody  was 
pleased.  Girls  are  sometimes  endured,  but 
never  welcomed,  in  Chinese  families.  The 
neighbors  did  not  congratulate  her  mother  as 
if  a  boy  had  been  born,  but  politely  ignored  the 
matter,  as  a  misfortune  about  which  the  less 
said  the  better.  However,  as  there  were 
already  three  boys  and  no  girls  in  the  family, 
she  was  allowed  to  live.  She  had  her  head 
shaven,  except  two  little  tufts  of  hair  over  the 
bumps  of  ''sublimity  ;"  a  short  sack  was  put  on 
her,  and  she  was  laid  in  a  basket  that  swung  by 
a  rope  from  a  beam  in  the  roof,  and  thence  she 
looked  about  her  world.  It  was  a  very  small 
one.  The  house  had  three  rooms,  a  bedroom 
at  each  end,  and  a  middle  room  used  for  all  do- 
mestic purposes.  From  her  basket  Gale  could 
watch  the  pigs  and  fowls  running  about,  and 

'5^ 


152  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

could  see  the  busy  people  in  the  six-feet-wide 
street  before  the  door.  When  she  grew  older, 
she  had  "the  three  contagious  diseases,"  chick- 
en-pox, small -pox,  and  measles,  which  public 
opinion  required  her  mother  to  see  that  she 
had  in  her  infancy.  As  soon  as  she  was  strong 
enough,  with  her  hair  braided  in  o'ne  strand 
down  her  back,  like  a  boy's,  with  a  pair  of  short 
trousers  on,  and  with  a  cold,  boiled  sweet-po- 
tato for  luncheon,  she  went  with  other  girls  to 
gather  dry  grass  and  sticks  to  cook  the  family 
food.  These  daily  excursions  with  basket  and 
rake,  by  the  shore  and  on  the  hills,  were  very 
pleasant.  To  be  sure,  she  would  get  hard  words 
and  blows  if  she  did  not  get  fuel  to  boil  the  pot ; 
but  the  sky  was  blue,  and  the  birds  sang  mean- 
while. Sometimes  she  wondered  if  all  the  vil- 
lages she  could  see  around  were  like  the  one 
she  lived  in,  where  all  the  houses  were  like  her 
house,  and  all  the  people  poor  as  she  ;  if  there 
was  any  end  to  the  sea ;  how  far  the  hills  went ; 
and  if  there  was  anything  beyond  the  sky. 
But  all  this  nobody  knew.  She  had  so  much 
work  to  do,  that  her  feet  were  neglected,  and 
got  so  large  that  they  began  to  be  a  disgrace  to 
the  family  before  they  were  bound.  She  knew 
the  pain  would  be  dreadful,   but  it  was   more 


BIOGRAI'HY    OF    LITTLE    GALE.  1 53 

dreadful  to  have  her  neighbors  say  as  she 
passed,  "  There  are  two  boats  going  by."  So 
she  bore  the  pain  until  it  ceased,  and  her  feet 
could  never  be  straightened  again.  Then  she 
could  not  go  to  the  hills  any  more,  for  she  could 
not  walk  far.  One  day  a  foreign  person  came 
to  the  village.  It  was  said  that  he  was  very 
wonderful,  with  white  skin,  pale  eyes,  and  red 
hair.  Everybody  ran  to  look,  but  her  feet 
would  not  go  fast,  and  she  lost  the  sight. 

She  helped  her  mother  spin  and  weave  the 
cotton  cloth  for  the  family  garments,  and 
cook  the  sweet-potatoes  and  rice  for  the  family 
meals.  When  her  father  and  brothers  had  eat- 
en, then  she  and  her  mother  ate  what  was  left. 
On  certain  days  she  worshipped  the  little  gilded 
miages  that  were  on  the  shelf  for  gods,  op- 
posite the  main  door  in  the  house  ;  and  some- 
times she  went  with  her  female  relations  to 
burn  incense  and  gilt  paper  before  the  gods  in 
the  village  temple.  So  she  came  to  her  fif- 
teenth year. 

Meanwhile  Lim,  a  tradesman  at  Swatow,  had 
a  younger  brother,  We,  getting  near  twenty, 
and  therefore  of  suitable  age  to  marry.  The 
parents  and  grandparents  being  dead,  Lim  was, 
by  immutable  custom,  the  head  of  the  house. 


154  rACion.x  s  ha  news. 

and  took  the  responsibility  of  the  departed 
father  towards  We,  demanding  filial  obedience 
in  return.  We  had  front  teeth  like  tusks,  and 
was  stupid  as  well  as  ugly.  He  helped  Lim 
in  the  shop.  Lim's  wife  wanted  a  servant,  so 
she  hastened  her  husband  in  sending  a  go- 
between  to  find  a  wife  for  We. 

The  go-between  knew  all  the  marriageable 
damsels  in  the  neighboring  villages,  and  began 
barscainino;  for  Gale.  Necfotiations,  carried  on 
through  the  go-between  by  the  elders  of  the 
two  families,  who  did  not  know  each  other,  re- 
sulted in  a  betrothal  between  We  and  Gale. 
The  bridegroom,  on  hearing  his  fate,  might 
have  run  away,  as  Chinese  bridegrooms  some- 
times do.  But  the  bride  had  no  such  resort. 
Should  she  object,  there  was  the  custom  of 
hundreds  of  generations  behind  her,  and  of  mil- 
lions of  people  around  her,  to  crush  out  her 
small  voice.  She  had  never  heard  of  any  other 
fate  for  a  woman.  She  had  no  precedent  by 
which  to  demur. 

She  would  have  new  clothes,  her  hair  would 
be  done  up  in  a  closed  butterfly  shape  on  her 
crown,  she  would  go  out  of  her  village  and 
see   the  wide  world,   and   it  would   all   be  very 


HIOLJKArilV    OK    I.ITTLK    (iALi:.  I55 

The  betrothal  money,  twenty-eight  dollars, 
wrapped  in  red  silk,  was  carried  from  Lim  to 
Gale's  parents  ;  suitable  red  cards  expressing 
amity  and  good  wishes,  were  exchanged  ;  and 
then  on  a  day  pronounced  lucky  by  a  geo- 
mancer,  Gale  was  taken  in  a  closed  sedan-chair, 
with  a  red  shawl  covering  her  head  and  face,  to 
the  house  of  her  unknow^n  bridegroom's  eldest 
brother.  There  she  worshipped  the  household 
gods,  and  was  led  to  her  room,  where  her  veil 
was  removed,  and  she  saw  for  the  first  time  the 
man  who  was  her  husband.  She  saw  his  tusks 
and  his  stupidity,  and  then  and  there  began  to 
hate  him.  The  next  day  she  stood  among  sev- 
eral old  female  friends,  and  all  who  chose,  of 
both  sexes,  came  to  see  her,  and  to  pass  com- 
ments on  her,  flattering,  curious,  or  malicious, 
as  their  dispositions  might  impel. 

Then  her  life  of  servitude  began.  Lim's  wdfe 
was  unaccustomed  to  power,  and  used  hers  mer- 
cilessly. She  was  arrogant  and  contemptuous 
towards  Gale,  and  made  her  wretched.  We, 
too,  grew  more  and  more  hateful  and  hated. 

Next  neighbor  to  her  was  her  aunt,  one  year 
older  than  she,  who  had  three  years  before  been 
betrothed  and  brought  home  by  the  parents  of 
a  young  man  who  had  been  absent  five  years. 


156  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

For  three  years  she  had  served  the  old  couple, 
awaiting  the  return  of  her  expected  bridegroom. 
For  two  years  nothing  had  been  heard  from 
him,  and  as  he  ran  away  when  he  left  home,  his 
parents  did  not  know  in  what  country  he  was. 
The  father  was  sick  and  foolish,  and  the  mother 
took  care  of  cows  for  the  support  of  the  family, 
leaving  her  son's  betrothed  wife  to  take  care  of 
the  sick  man  and  the  house.  Gale  and  this  girl 
were  seen  in  frequent  conference,  from  which 
they  ceased  as  soon  as  observed  ;  then  thev 
were  met  very  early  in  the  morning,  in  gala 
dress,  on  the  road  to  their  native  village,  and 
when  asked  where  they  were  going,  they  said 
"for  a  pleasure-trip  home."  Shortly  after,  their 
shoes  were  found  on  the  brink  of  a  pool  used  in 
irrigating  the  rice-fields,  and  their  lifeless  bodies 
were  taken  from  the  bottom. 

The  most  frequent  remark  made  to  those  who 
question  the  Chinese  concernmg  the  circum- 
stances which  led  to  so  terrible  a  result,  is  that 
suicide  is  common  among  women. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

THE  AUTOBIOGRAPHY  OF  AUNT  LUCK. 

TwAS  born  at  Koi  Tan,  a  villao-e  in  Po  Leno-. 
My  father  was  a  store-keeper,  and  I  was  the 
youngest  of  seven  children.  When  I  was  seven 
vears  old,  I  was  betrothed,  for  eisfht  dollars,  to 
a  man  at  Nam  Leng,  a  village  a  mile  from  my 
home.  I  had  never  seen  the  man,  nor  any  of 
his  family.  I  took  nothing  from  home  with  me 
but  the  tunic  and  pair  of  trousers  which  I 
wore.  My  mother  and  the  two  go-betweens 
who  had  acted  as  agents  in  my  betrothal,  led 
me  to  his  house  and  left  me  there.  I  jumped 
up  and  down,  and  screamed  to  go  back  with 
my  mother.  My  husband's  mother  told  me 
not  to  cry,  for  my  home  was  to  be  with  her 
henceforth,  and  my  husband's  grandmother 
carried  me  on  her  back  to  please  and  quiet  me, 
but  I  kept  crying  more  or  less  for  years.  In- 
deed,  I   never  really  stopped  crying  till   I   had 

•57 


158  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

children  of  my  own.  In  the  family  there  were 
my  husband's  grandfather,  grandmother,  father, 
mother,  uncles,  aunts,  five  brothers,  and  four 
sisters-in-law.  I  was  told  which  man  was  to  be 
my  husband,  and  though  he  was  handsome,  I 
immediately  disliked  him,  because  he  seemed  so 
old  to  me,  being  nine  years  older  than  I. 

I  did  not  see  my  own  mother  again  for  three 
years,  for  she  was  afraid  I  would  cry  and  be 
discontented  if  I  saw  her.  I  aUva)'s  slept  with 
my  mother-in-law,  and  during  the  da\-  I  spooled 
the  yarn  which  the  elder  ones  spun  and  wove 
into  cloth.  At  this  I  worked  from  daylight 
until  dark,  only  stopping  to  eat.  I  had  plenty 
to  eat,  and  was  only  whipped  when  I  nodded 
over  my  spools.  Once  a  year  one  of  my 
brothers  came  to  see  if  I  was  well.  He  stayed 
but  a  few  minutes  when  he  came,  because  it 
might  make  me  homesick  if  he  talked  much 
with  me.  When  I  was  eleven  years  old  I  went 
to  my  fathei's  house  and  stayed  four  months,  1 
and  did  the  same  each  year  thereafter  until  I 
was  married.  I  learned  to  spin  and  weave  and  | 
sew  and  cook.  All  this  time  I  never  spoke  to 
my  betrothed  husband,  and  he  onlv  spoke  to  me 
In  tell  me  to  do  something.  At  fourteen,  when 
his  mother  tejld  me  to  do  so,  I    became  his  wite. 


AUTOCIOGKAPIIV    OF    AUNT    LUCK.  I  59 

I  cooked  rice,  fed  the  pigs,  and  did  other  work 
for  the  family. 

IMy  hu.sbaiid  never  ealled  me  l)y  any  name 
whatever.  When  he  wanted  me  to  do  any- 
thing, he  said,  "  Here  you,"  and  of  course  I 
knew  he  meant  me.  When  I  was  sixteen  I  had 
a  httle  girl,  and  then  another  and  another. 
The  third  one  I  strangled  when  it  was  born,  for 
I  was  frightened,  and  knew  I  should  be  hated 
for  having  so  many  girls.  Then  I  had  three 
boys  and  another  girl,  and  when  I  was  forty,  I 
had  nine  children.  My  husband  was  a  good- 
natured  man,  and  he  was  not  very  hard  toward 
me.  In  all  the  forty  )ears  I  lived  with  him,  he 
beat  me  only  four  or  five  times.  That  was 
when  I  moved  too  slowly  in  serving  him,  and 
then  answered  back  when  he  scolded  me. 
There  are  not  ten  men  in  a  thousand  in  China 
w  ho  do  not  beat  their  wives  at  all. 

I  never  belie\'ed  much  in  the  gods  in  the 
tcn-ii)les,  and  we  seldom  went  to  worship  there. 
Once,  twice,  and  sometimes  three  times  in  a 
month,  1  and  my  husband  and  children,  with 
many  others,  used  to  go  on  fi.xed  days  to  the 
tops  of  the  mountains,  and  worship  the  heavens 
and  the  earth.  Sometimes  it  was  the  moon  we 
went  to  worship,  sometimes  the  sun,  sometimes 


l60  PACIOHA    SHADOWS. 

the  thunder-god.  Sometimes  we  went  to  one 
peak,  sometimes  to  another  ;  and  in  the  course 
of  years,  we  went  to  nearly  all  the  high  peaks 
in  and  around  our  district.  We  spent  from 
three  to  ten  dollars  each  time  on  our  offerings. 
Sometimes  my  husband  sold  products  of  the 
farm,  and  sometimes  I  sold  one  of  my  fat  pigs 
to  get  the  money.  We  took  rice,  pork,  tea, 
cakes,  fruit,  sugar,  pies,  everything  that  is  nice 
to  eat,  and  spread  it  out  invitingly  on  the  rocks, 
and  burned  incense  and  mock  money.  Immense 
centipedes,  sent  by  the  demons  to  see  what  was 
brought,  and  how  many  people  came  to  worship, 
crawled  out  of  the  rocks  and  around  the  offer- 
ings and  back  into  their  holes  again. 

One  by  one  the  elders  of  our  family,  and  all 
but  three  of  my  children,  died.  When  I  was 
fifty-four,  that  is  ten  years  ago,  my  husband  died 
also.  After  that  I  spent  more  time  than  ever 
worshipping  upon  the  mountains,  but  I  got  sick 
and  had  no  strength.  My  nephew,  Leng,  who 
had  heard  the  true  doctrine,  used  to  come  often 
to  see  me,  and  tell  me  that  there  was  only  one 
God,  and  he  was  everywhere  ;  that  he  made  the 
sun  to  rise,  the  moon  to  change,  the  wind  to 
blow,  the  rain  to  fall,  and  all  that  is.  Little  by 
little  I  believed  what  he  said.     As  soon  as  1  be- 


AUTOBIOCiKAPHV    OF    AUNT    LUCK.  l6l 

licved,  I  destroyed  the  censers  we  used  in  wor- 
shipping false  gods.     My  sons  saw  me  taking 
them  out  of  the  house,  and  asked  me  if  I  was 
not  afraid  to  do  it  ;  but  I  told  them  that  what  I 
had  myself  set  up  I  could  myself  take  down,  and 
they  said  no  more.    Then  I  prayed  earnestly  that 
I  might  have  strength  given  me  to  come  and  be 
baptized  ;  and  when  the  next  communion  season 
came,  I  told  Lcng  I  was  coming  with  him  to 
Swatow.     At    that    time    Leng    was    the   only 
Christian  in  Po  Leng,  and  his  mother  and  wife 
beat  him  for  worshipping  God,  and  their  neigh- 
bors  applauded    them.     Leng   said   I  was    too 
weak,  and  must  not  think  of  coming  to  Swatow  ; 
but  I  got  up  off  my  bed,  and  walked  very  slowly 
the  whole  forty  miles,  and  when  I  got  here,  the 
people  said  a  dead  woman  had  come. 

Since  then  I  have  been  in  all  the  Po  Leng 
villages  speaking  the  gospel,  and  can  walk  fif"^ 
teen  or  twenty  miles  a  day.  Nobody  dares 
molest  me  when  I  speak  of  God,  and  those  who 
do  not  believe  keep  silent  and  listen. 


CHAPTER    XXI. 

THE    BAMBOO    DRAGON. 

Speed  is  the  daughter  of  one  of  the  com- 
pletest  Christians  and  best  preachers  that  the 
Chinese  church  has  possessed.  From  her  father 
she  has  inherited  a  rare  aptness  to  teach,  and 
I  have  seen  her  hold  the  attention  of  a  congre- 
gation of  heathen  women  for  hours  at  a  time. 
Being  under  thirty  years  old,  she  is  too  young 
to  do  village-work  as  a  Bible-woman  ;  but  she 
goes  to  the  country  stations,  speaking  effec- 
tively to  the  women  who  gather  at  the  chapels, 
and  she  assists  in  teaching  the  women  who  are 
learning  to  read.  She  has  singular  tact  in 
showing  the  other  women  how  to  narrate  a 
Bible-story.  Chinese  children  are  apparently 
much  younger  than  American  children  of  the 


162 


SPEED,    WriH    A    PUPIT. 


THE    BAMBOO    DRAGON.  165 


SPEED'S    STORY 


My  home  is  twenty  miles  north  from  Swatow, 
and    at    the    time  when    my   father   became   a 
Christian    I   had  never  seen  a  foreigner.      My 
father  had  been  a  man  with  many  friends.      He 
had   such  a  happy  style  of   setting  the  truth 
before    people,   and  was   so    curiously  wise    in 
discerning    ways    in    which    a   point    could    be 
gained,  that  many  people  came  to  him  for  ad- 
vice, and  generally  went  away  convinced  that 
his  advice  was  worth  following.     He  was  skilful 
in  the  settlement  of  disputes  and  in  reconcil- 
ing those  at  variance.     He  was  much  beloved 
until    he   became  a   Christian.      I   was    a  very 
little  girl  then,  but   I   remember  the  disquiet 
with  which  I  saw  my  father  losing  the  affection 
and   esteem   of   others  on  account  of   his  new 
religion.     He  no  sooner  believed  in  Jesus  than 
he   became   an    incessant    preacher  of   him  to 
others.     He  would  talk  of  God  to  any  one  who 
happened  to  be  walking  along  the  street  with 
him  ;   he  pestered  the  neighbors  by  preaching 
at  his  own  door  at  twilight;   he  would  sit  by 
the  roadside,  or  in  any  shed,  till  late  into  the 
night    expounding   doctrine;    he    would    follow 
and   exhort   people    so    persistently,   that    they 


l66  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

used   in  our   neighborhood    to  call  me  "God's 
child  "  in  derision. 

When  I  was  thirteen  years  old,  my  father 
wished  to  come  to  Swatow  to  join  the  church. 
We  had  an  orange-garden,  on  which  we  de- 
pended for  the  support  of  the  family,  and  it 
had  to  be  watched  constantly  to  protect  the 
fruit  from  thieves.  It  was  a  mile  from  our 
house,  and  my  father  took  great  care  of  it. 
As  I  was  the  only  child,  and  loved  my  father 
greatly,  I  was  almost  always  with  him  there. 
There  was  a  little  straw  hut  to  sleep  in  at  night, 
and  a  close  hedge  all  around  the  garden.  My 
father  told  me  that  I  must  watch  the  garden 
while  he  was  gone,  and  that  would  be  for  three 
days.  I  was  terrified  at  this,  for  two  reasons. 
One  was  that  I  greatly  feared  to  stay  alone 
in  the  garden  ;  and  the  other  was  that  the 
neighbors  had  said  that  any  one  who  went  and 
joined  himself  to  the  missionaries  would  never 
come  back.  He  would  have  his  heart  and  eye- 
balls taken  out  and  made  into  a  medicine, 
which  the  missionaries  sold  for  a  great  price 
to  their  foreign  countrymen.  My  father  saw 
that  I  was  troubled,  and  told  me  that  I  might 
have  one  of  the  neighbor's  children  stay  with 
me  at  the  garden.      I  thouq;ht  the  matter  over 


THE    BAMBOO    DRAGON.  167 

and    decided    that    I    would    watch    alone.       If 
thieves  should  not  come,  then  there  would   be 
no  need  of  help ;  if  thieves  should  come,  then 
the   other  child   would   be   frightened   and   cry 
out,  and    the   thieves    would    discover    by    the 
voices  that  there  were  only  children  there,  and 
would   rob  the  garden.      I,  alone,  would  keep 
silent,  and  would  strike  together  two  pieces  of 
broken  bowl,  and  throw  stones  toward   all  the 
gates,  and  the  thieves  would  think  there  was  a 
grown  person  with  weapons  there,  and  would 
run  awa);.     So  I  left  my  mother  guarding  the 
house,   and    took   food   with    me   and  went    to 
the  garden,  which  was  on  the  road  to  Swatow. 
It  was  Saturday,  and  my  father  said   he  would 
be  back  on  Monday.      To  me  it  seemed  as  if 
he  had  said  he  would  be  back  in  three  years. 
I  wondered  in  my  heart  whether  I  should  ever 
see  him  again,  and  then  wondered  if  when  he 
came  back  he  would  see  me  again ;  but  I  did 
not  speak  a  word  of  what   I  thought.     I  laid 
broken   tiles   before  all   the   places   where   the 
thieves  were  likely  to  come  in,  so  that   I  could 
hear  a  rattling  if  any  one  stepped  on  them,  and 
gathered  little  heaps  of   stones  to  throw,  and 
put  some  broken  crockery  beside  me,  and  slept 
unmolested  in  the  hut.     On   Monday  I  made  a 


1 68  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

little  hole  in  the  hedge  toward  the  Swatow 
road,  and  watched  all  day  for  the  coming  of 
my  father.  As  it  grew  late  in  the  afternoon, 
I  began  to  cry,  and  at  dark  I  could  endure  no 
longer.  I  left  the  garden  to  its  fate  and  ran 
home,  careful  that  no  one  should  see  me  and 
thus  know  that  the  garden  was  unwatched.  I 
threw  myself  into  my  mother's  lap,  saying, 
"  Father  has  not  come,  and  what  the  neighbors 
say  about  the  foreigners  is  true  then."  But  in 
a  few  minutes  my  father  came ;  and  then  I 
thought,  "  If  I  had  only  stayed  in  the  garden 
a  little  longer,  he  would  have  praised  me  ;  now 
he  will  be  displeased  that  I  have  left  the  garden 
unwatched,"  But  he  did  not  reprove  me  by  a 
word,  and  we  went  back  to  the  garden  together, 
and  found  all  safe. 

After  this,  as  my  father  kept  on  preaching, 
my  mother  and  several  of  our  neighbors  be- 
lieved. There  was  a  woman  living  near  us  who 
could  read  and  write,  and  was  expert  in  cutting 
figures  and  flowers  from  red  paper,  and  was  a 
popular  talker  behind  shadow-pictures.  This 
caused  her  to  be  much  liked  in  the  community. 
My  father  went  to  her,  and  told  her  about  the 
importance  of  having  no  god  but  God,  and  she 
was  enrasfed  that  one  who  did  not  know  how 


THE    BAMBOO    DRAGON,  169 

to  read  should  come  to  teach  her  who  was  well 
known  as  a  scholar.  Our  former  friends  took 
her  part,  and  my  father  was  more  derided  than 
ever.  But  he  kept  on  arguing  with  her,  and 
finally  she  sent  her  son  to  Swatow  to  see  the 
missionaries,  and  hear  what  they  said.  She  is 
now  the  Bible-woman  Snow,  and  her  son  is  the 
preacher  Po  San. 

I  was  baptized  when  I  was  fourteen.  I 
learned  to  read  in  the  mission-school.  Before 
I  went  to  school  I  wished  to  have  my  feet 
bound  that  I  might  be  like  other  girls,  but  my 
father  told  me  that  if  I  insisted  on  having  my 
feet  bound,  my  hands  should  be  bound  also. 
After  I  went  to  school  I  was  very  glad  that  my 
feet  were  free,  and  now  my  husband  approves 
of  feet  naturally  shaped.  I  often  go  to  visit 
Christian  women  in  different  villages  and  I 
often  speak  of  the  true  God  to  those  who  have 
not  before  been  tauo-ht.  A  few  weeks  ao:o  I 
was  at  Am  Choi,  and  a  large  bamboo  dragon, 
such  as  is  worshipped  in  some  places,  floated 
from  up  the  river  and  lodged  on  the  bank,  with 
its  mouth  toward  the  village.  It  had  been  made 
from  bamboo  twigs  contributed  by  many  people, 
and  had  an  immense  snout  and  glaring  eyes, 
and  was  painted  in    gorgeous  colors,  and  was 


170  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

very  hideous.  Soothsayers  were  frequently  con- 
sulted in  regard  to  it,  and  when  they  said  it 
wanted  to  be  in  the  water,  it  was  lowered  rever- 
entially into  the  river  ;  and  when  it  wished  to 
be  on  land,  it  was  lifted  into  a  temple  and  served 
devoutly  with  many  offerings  and  prostrations. 
One  night  the  current  carried  the  dragon  away 
to  Am  Choi,  where  it  filled  all  the  inhabitants 
with  terror.  It  was  thought  to  breed  pestilence, 
and  sickness  prevailed  in  its  neighborhood. 
The  people  told  me  what  harm  the  dragon  did 
among  them,  and  one  of  the  women  led  me  to 
go  and  take  a  peep  at  the  dreadful  thing.  The 
friends  of  the  sick  ones  were  there,  making  pro- 
pitiatory offerings,  throwing  the  offerings  away 
after  the  ceremony  of  presenting  them,  instead 
of  eating  them  as  they  would  eat  offerings  to 
beneficent  deities.  No  one  dared  touch  the 
dragon,  nor  to  push  it  off  the  bank.  It  was 
thought  that  the  only  safe  measure  was  to  bring 
pork,  ducks,  and  fruit,  and  that  by  such  pres- 
ents, combined  with  worship,  it  might  be  in- 
duced to  refrain  from  producing  disease.  I  told 
the  woman  who  had  brought  me  to  see  the 
dragon  that  there  is  but  one  true  God,  who  is 
invisible,  and  who  keeps  those  who  serve  Him 
from  the  power  of  all  dragons  and  evil  spirits  of 


THE    BAMBOO    DRAGON.  I/I 

every  kind.  And  then  after  praying  to  Him, 
the  Almighty  One,  I  punched  holes  in  the 
dragon  with  my  umbrella,  and  pushed  it  off  the 
shore.  All  the  by-standers  were  amazed,  and 
m?lny  came  afterward  to  have  me  tell  them 
about  the  God  who  protected  me. 


CHAPTER   XXII. 


GOLD    GETTER. 


This  woman  who  was  forty-two  years  old,  and 
who  did  not  previously  know  a  letter,  learned  in 
ten  months  to  read  fluently  a  hundred  hymns, 
the  whole  of  the  four  Gospels,  and  the  book  of 
Acts,  and  to  tell  from  memory  nearly  all  she 
had  read. 

GOLD  GETTER'S   STORY. 

I  was  the  second  child  and  eldest  daughter  in 

a  family  of  many  children.     My  elder  brother  had 

been  named  Coming  Wealth,  and  I  was  called 

Gold  Getter,  through  a  poetic  idea  that  a  fine 

girl   is   worth    a   thousand   dollars   of  betrothal 

money.     We  lived   in   a  hamlet  of  about  four 

hundred  people.     The  place  was  so  small  that 

it  was  quiet,  and  there  were  only  two  theatrical 

performances  a  year,  one  in   the  first  and   one 
172 


GOLD  GETTER.  1 73 

in  the  twelfth  month.  A  company  of  actors 
was  called  by  the  head  men  of  the  village ;  a 
platform,  with  a  roof  over  it,  was  put  up  in  an 
open  space,  and  some  mats  with  the  red  boxes 
holding  the  actors'  costumes  formed  the  sides 
and  back  of  the  theatre.  The  front  was  left 
open  toward  the  area  for  spectators.  The  play 
continued  through  an  afternoon  and  the  follow- 
ing night,  and  was  performed  for  the  amusement 
of  the  gods,  who  were  previously  consulted  as 
to  the  time  when  they  could  conveniently  at- 
tend. Although  the  plays  were  primarily  for 
the  pleasure  of  the  gods,  all  the  people  of  the 
village,  and  many  from  neighboring  villages, 
came  to  look  on.  A  performance  cost  from 
seven  to  twenty  dollars,  according  to  the  skill 
of  the  actors  and  the  magnificence  of  the  cos- 
tumes exhibited.  It  was  paid  for  by  an  assess- 
ment upon  all  the  men  and  married  women  in 
the  village.  Boys,  though  only  a  few  days  old, 
paid  a  tax,  but  unmarried  girls  were  not  counted. 
The  assessment  often  amounted  to  three  or  four 
cents  for  each  member  of  a  family. 

In  our  hamlet  there  was  no  temple,  but  just 
outside  the  village  there  was  a  shrine,  where 
the  chief  god  of  the  vicinity  was  supposed  to 
dwell.     There  was  no  image,  but  only  an  in- 


174  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

cense-urn  set  up  on  some  stones,  with  a  little 
roof  over  it.  I  never  heard  what  this  god  was, 
but  every  place  has  a  peculiar  god.  Besides 
this,  there  was  the  god  of  the  kitchen,  and  several 
other  gods  that  we  worshipped  at  the  new  and 
the  full  moon,  at  the  eight  festivals,  and  at  other 
times,  so  that  we  worshipped  as  many  as  forty 
times  a  year.  My  mother  taught  me  how  to 
worship  the  gods  when  I  was  very  young,  first 
having  me  stand  at  one  side  to  see  how  she  did 
it,  and  then  having  me  do  as  she  had  done. 

When  I  was  married  I  went  to  live  at  Silver 
Plains,  a  city  of  twenty  thousand  people.  There 
were  as  many  as  thirty  or  forty  large  temples, 
with  many  gods  in  them,  and  there  were  many 
rich  and  powerful  families  living  there.  The 
family  into  which  I  was  married  was  rich,  and 
at  that  time  I  lived  very  comfortably.  My  hus- 
band was  the  youngest  of  six  brothers,  and  was 
twenty-nine  years  old.  Soon  after  my  marriage 
there  were  clan  feuds  in  Silver  Plains,  and  at 
one  time  the  people  on  one  side  of  our  street 
were  at  war  with  those  on  the  other  side,  so 
that  we  kept  our  doors  barricaded,  and  could 
not  safely  go  out.  These  feuds  wasted  the 
family  property,  and  sickness  wasted  the  house- 
hold.    I  had  ten  children,  seven  boys  and  three 


CiOLI)    (iETTEK.  I  75 

girls,  but  only  one  son  and  one  daughter  lived. 
My  husband  was  injured  in  a  fight  between  two 
parties  in  our  own  clan,  and  on  consulting  a 
spirit-medium  in  regard  to  a  remedy  for  his 
wounds,  he  was  told  that  he  would  never  get 
well  unless  he  at  once  went  abroad.  He  went, 
with  only  one  dollar  to  meet  expenses,  and  I 
have  never  since  heard  of  him. 

Eight  years  ago  a  woman,  who  was  a  stranger 
to  me,  came  as  the  agent  of  an  acquaintance  to 
negotiate  for  the  betrothal  of  my  daughter  to  a 
young  man  in  another  village.  This  woman 
told  me  about  a  true  God,  and  told  me  where  to 
go  to  hear  the  true  doctrines,  in  the  District 
City,  a  league  away.  After  that  I  went  twice 
to  the  chapel  to  which  she  had  directed  me,  but 
as  it  happened  to  be  on  other  days  than  Sun- 
day, and  as  I  did  not  find  the  woman  I  knew 
there,  I  did  not  go  in.  After  my  daughter  was 
married,  I  lived  alone  with  my  little  son  in  a 
room  which  I  hired  for  two  dollars  a  year,  and 
supported  myself  by  weaving  cotton  cloth  for 
two  cents  a  yard,  the  yarn  furnished.  In  this 
way  I  earned  on  an  average  six  cents  a  day. 

Three  years  ago  I  became  acquainted  with  a 
church  member,  who  told  me  when  Sunday 
came,  and  I  again  went  to  the  chapel,  taking 


176  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

my  son  with  me.  I  used  to  go  in  all  sorts  of 
weather,  and  my  neighbors  derided  me  for  lack 
of  thrift,  saying  that  by  ceasing  to  work,  pay- 
ing my  boat-fare,  and  spoiling  my  clothes  in  the 
rain,  I  lost  in  that  one  day  two  days'  earnings. 
But  I  kept  on,  and  heard  the  preaching  at  the 
chapel  for  five  months,  and  then  I  was  baptized. 
My  son  will  not  go  to  theatres,  even  when 
his  playmates  try  hard  to  induce  him  ;  and  when 
I  go  out  teaching  the  gospel  he  tries  to  preach 
too.  When  I  was  last  at  my  native  village,  the 
women  there  said  if  I  would  come  and  teach 
them  about  the  true  God,  they  would  surely  be- 
lieve. There  are  many  tens  of  hamlets  among 
the  hills  where  I  could  go,  as  my  feet  are  not 
bound,  and  I  think  many  women  there  would 
believe  the  true  doctrine  if  they  heard  it. 


CHAPTER    XXIII. 


KEEPSAKE. 


My  name  is  Keepsake.  I  am  fifty-four  years 
old,  and  have  been  a  Bible-woman  four  years. 
I  have  now  no  near  relative  but  the  Lord,  and 
have  nothing  to  do  but  his  work.  If  I  had  ac- 
cepted the  gospel  when  he  first  sent  it  to  me 
thirty  years  ago,  perhaps  I  might  have  kept 
much  that  I  then  had  and  loved  ;  but  I  would 
not  heed  his  message  till  he  chastened  me  by 
taking  away  the  earthly  things  to  which  my 
heart  clung. 

My  father  was  a  fish-merchant,  and  did  an 
extensive  business.  He  died  when  I  was  three 
years  old.  I  had  five  brothers  and  a  sister,  and 
as  I  was  much  younger  than  any  of  them,  I  was 
a  pet  in  the  family.  My  eldest  brother  studied 
for  a  literary  degree,  but  as  he  was  fonder  of 
making  pictures  than  of  reading,  he  failed  to 
pass  examination.     My  second   brother  was  a 


1/8  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

most  filial  son.  When  my  mother  entered  a 
room  in  which  he  was  sitting,  he  would  imme- 
diately rise,  and  remain  standing  so  long  as  she 
uas  there.  He  was  also  very  talented.  He 
began  to  attend  the  examinations  when  he  was 
only  fourteen  years  old,  and  when  he  was  eigh- 
teen he  got  a  degree.  Then  he  taught,  and 
studied  for  a  higher  degree ;  but  before  he 
attained  it  he  died,  at  the  age  of  twenty-five. 
My  younger  brothers  tilled  our  land.  Though 
there  were  two  scholars  in  our  family,  I  was 
never  taught  to  read.  Girls  are  not  taught  to 
read  unless  they  are  the  only  children,  and 
their  fathers  may  then  teach  them  for  pleasure. 

My  mother  was  forty-four  years  older  than  I, 
and  she  was  always  very  tender  toward  me.  I 
had  my  feet  bound  when  I  was  thirteen  years 
old  ;  but  when  they  ached  in  the  night,  my 
mother  would  tell  me  to  loosen  the  bandages. 
Bound  feet  ache  worse  when  they  are  still. 

When  I  was  fourteen  years  old,  I  was  be- 
trothed to  a  young  man  at  the  city  of  Chung 
Lim,  a  league  from  my  home.  An  old  neigh- 
bor acted  as  go-between,  and  went  to  and  fro 
between  the  families,  till  all  the  preliminaries 
were  settled.  My  future  mother-in-law  was  very 
particular  in  previously  ascertaining  whether  I 


KEEPSAKE.  179 

would  bring  good  fortune  to  her  househoVI. 
After  learning  the  year,  month,  day,  and  hour 
of  my  birth,  she  consulted  a  blind  fortune-teller, 
and  got  a  favorable  answer  ;  then  she  wor- 
shipped before  her  family  gods,  tossing  up  a 
split  bamboo-root  till  it  fell  so  as  to  give  an 
auspicious  omen  ;  then  she  made  offerings  to 
the  gods  in  the  temple,  and  got  from  their  in- 
terpreter a  sign  of  acquiescence.  After  that,  on 
a  day  chosen  as  lucky,  the  go-between  brought 
fourteen  dollars  done  up  in  red  paper,  and  my 
mother  received  it.  With  that  the  bargain  was 
concluded,  and  could  not  be  broken  by  any  of 
the  persons  involved.  I  was  not  consulted  in 
the  matter,  and  no  one  told  me  anything  about 
it  ;  but  I  overheard  what  was  said,  and  knew 
very  well  what  was  going  on,  though  I  dared 
ask  no  questions.  When  I  was  seventeen,  a 
lucky  day  was  fixed  upon,  fourteen  dollars  more 
were  paid  to  my  mother,  and  I  was  carried  to 
my  mother-in-law's  house.  My  mother  had 
been  busy  for  some  months  in  preparing  my 
wedding  outfit.  It  consisted  of  two  washtubs, 
two  trunks,  two  strong  cloth  bags  for  clothing, 
two  large  red  lanterns,  a  thick  cotton  coverlet, 
a  pillow,  sixty  garments  for  summer  and  winter 
wear,  embroidered  shoes,  hair  ornaments  of  sil- 


l80  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

ver  washed  with  gold,  bracelets,  and  ear-rinc^s. 
My  jewelry  was  worth  twenty  dollars,  and  my 
outfit  altogether  cost  over  sixty  dollars.  I  have 
still  the  coverlet  and  one  tunic  which  my  mother 
then  gave  me.  The  jewelry  I  have  given  to  my 
daughter,  except  a  pair  of  bracelets  which  were 
torn  off  my  wrists  the  day  that  we  Christians 
were  attacked  and  beaten  by  a  mob,  in  the 
chapel  at  Chung  Lim. 

If  people  are  very  poor,  they  give  their 
daughters  only  a  suit  or  two  of  clothing  when 
they  are  married.  If  they  are  rich,  they  give 
them  much  more  than  the  amount  of  the  be- 
trothal money.  I  knew  a  man  who  gave  his 
daughter  a  wedding  outfit  worth  a  thousand 
dollars,  and  it  included  a  rice-field. 

I  was  troubled  about  going  away  from  home, 
and  anxious  lest  I  should  be  unable  to  perform 
the  duties  of  a  dau2;hter-in-law,  and  I  did  not 
look  upon  my  new  garments  with  pleasure. 
But  all  girls  have  to  be  married,  and  of  course 
I  must  be.  The  day  before  my  marriage,  my 
mother  gathered  twelve  kinds  of  flowers,  and 
steeped  them  in  water,  and  the  next  morning 
I  was  washed  in  this  water,  and  dressed  in  an 
entire  suit  of  new  clothing,  with  a  fine  outer 
srarment  that  mv  mother-in-law  had  hired  from 


KEEPSAKE.  l8l 

a  wealthy  official,  and  sent  for  the  occasion.  I 
was  then  put  into  a  sedan-chair,  and  as  it  was 
lifted  up,  my  mother  took  water  in  which  green 
peas  had  been  steeped  and  threw  it  on  the  top 
of  the  chair,  for  good  luck.  Only  the  go- 
between  went  with  me  to  my  mother-in-law's 
house.  The  go-between  stayed  three  days  and 
waited  upon  me,  then  she  went  home.  She  re- 
ceived two  dollars  from  my  husband's  mother, 
and  one  dollar  from  my  mother,  for  the  per- 
formance of  all  her  part  in  the  transaction. 

After  three  days,  my  mother  sent  my  nephew 
to  bring  me  a  bottle  of  hair-oil,  and  to  inquire 
after  me.  At  the  end  of  a  month,  he  came 
again,  and  brought  me  an  artificial  flower,  and 
a  basket  of  boiled  rice.  At  the  end  of  four 
months,  my  mother  sent  a  sedan-chair  for  me, 
and  I  went  and  ate  breakfast  with  her.  It  is 
not  the  custom  for  a  mother  to  visit  her  mar- 
ried daughter  until  the  latter  has  had  children  ; 
and  then  the  mother-in-law  must  go  and.  invite 
the  mother  to  come. 

My  husband  was  seven  years  older  than  I, 
and  his  elder  brother's  wife  had  already  been 
brought  home.  The  house  had  three  bed- 
rooms ;  one  for  the  mother,  one  for  the  elder 
brother  and  his  wife,  and  one  for  my  husband 


1 82  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

and  myself.  There  was,  besides,  a  common 
kitchen,  and  a  living-room.  ^ly  husband's 
father  was  dead.  Like  all  daughters-in-law,  I 
cooked,  sewed,  washed,  wove,  and  fed  pigs.  I 
had  four  children,  two  boys  and  two  girls  ;  but 
one  boy  and  one  girl  died  when  very  young. 
My  mother-in-law  also  died  when  I  was  twenty- 
one. 

Some  thirty  years  ago,  my  youngest  brother 
heard  a  missionary  preach  and  became  a  Chris- 
tian. My  brother  used  to  come  and  tell  me 
about  God,  and  would  explain  the  true  doc- 
trines to  me  until  the  perspiration  would  run 
down  his  cheeks,  through  his  exertions  in  mak- 
ing me  understand.  He  came  again  and  again  ; 
but  though  I  saw  that  what  he  said  must  be 
true,  my  heart  clung  to  the  old  idols,  and  I 
wanted  to  adhere  to  the  customs  followed  by 
my  friends.  My  head  received  the  truth,  but 
my  heart  rejected  it.  God  has  many  ways  of 
making  people  repent.  Had  my  husband  pros- 
pered in  business  I  should  never  have  turned 
to  the  Lord. 

When  I  was  thirty-four  years  old,  my  hus- 
band went  with  a  cargo  of  goods  to  Si  am  ;  and 
there  he   took  to  smoking  opium,  lost   money 


KEEPSAKE.  183 

rapidly,  and  never  came  back  any  more.  I  dili- 
gently made  offerings  to  the  gods,  and  every 
year  spent  as  much  as  ten  dollars  in  mock 
money  and  incense  to  be  burned  before  them. 
I  consulted  fortune-tellers  to  inquire  when  a 
letter  or  money  would  come  from  ray  husband, 
and  would  often  get  the  answer  for  a  certain 
day.  Then  I  would  sit  in  the  door,  and  watch 
for  the  coming  of  the  letter ;  and  when  any  one 
that  looked  like  a  letter-carrier  approached,  my 
heart  would  beat  fast ;  and  when  I  found  there 
was  no  letter  for  me,  I  would  go  in  and  cry. 
After  I  had  spent  much  devotion  and  money 
on  the  gods,  and  found  that  they  always  dis- 
appointed me,  I  began  to  think  my  brother's 
God  might  be  better.  I  went  to  him  and  said, 
"  Brother,  hereafter  I  am  going  to  worship  God  ; 
but  as  there  are  so  many  who  will  oppose  and 
despise  me,  I  will  only  worship  him  secretly." 
My  brother  told  me  that  every  one  who  be- 
longed to  Christ  must  confess  him  before  men. 
I  went  home  and  thought  it  over,  and  began  to 
go  on  Sundays  to  worship  with  the  few  Chris- 
tians at  Chung  Lim.  My  son  was  so  vexed 
when  he  knew  that  I  meant  to  be  a  Christian, 
that  he  cried  ;    and  my  sister-in-law,  who   had 


184  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

before  been  very  friendly  with  me.  hated  me, 
and  locked  the  door  so  that  I  could  not  get  in 
when  I  came  from  the  chapel.  It  was  very 
troublesome,  indeed,  being  a  Christian. 

When  my  son  was  eighteen  years  old,  he 
went  to  Siam  to  search  for  his  father,  hoping 
to  induce  him  to  give  up  opium.  The  next 
year,  when  I  was  forty-one,  I  came  with  some 
of  the  brethren  and  sisters  from  Chuno;  Lim  to 
Swatow,  to  be  baptized.  I  had  to  come  secret- 
ly ;  and  I  sent  my  extra  clothing,  with  rice  and 
cash  for  the  journey,  to  the  chapel  on  the 
previous  evening  ;  and  early  in  the  morning  I 
came  out  and  joined  the  Christian  company  on 
the  road.  Before  I  got  back  to  Chung  Lim, 
my  sister-in-law  went  to  three  of  the  four  chief 
men  of  our  clan  and  told  them  what  I  had 
done  ;  and  they  agreed  to  wait  on  the  brink  of 
the  river  for  me,  and  catch  me  as  I  was  cross- 
ing, and  crush  me  into  the  river  bottom  till  I 
died.  But  she  went  last  to  the  head  of  the 
clan,  and  though  the  reasons  she  gave  for  my 
having  gone  to  Swatow  were  too  bad  to  be 
spoken,  he  told  her  that  the  foreign  teachers 
were  powerful,  and  that  she  might  get  herself 
into  serious  trouble  by  killing  a  Christian  ;  so 


KEEPSAKE.  185 

my  life  was  saved.  When  I  got  home,  she  re- 
viled me,  but  nothing  more.  She  would  never 
let  me  preach  the  gospel  in  our  house,  nor  let 
any  one  who  believed  it  come  to  visit  me. 
When  I  am  sick,  my  daughter,  who  is  married 
into  a  family  that  lives  but  a  few  streets  off, 
and  whose  mother-in-law  is  very  obliging,  comes 
and  takes  care  of  me. 

My  son  went  into  business  in  Siam,  and  then 
came  up  to  Hong  Kong.  From  there  he  sent 
me  twenty  dollars,  and  a  message  asking  my 
pardon  for  his  lack  of  filial  love  in  not  coming 
to  see  me  ;  but  his  ship  was  going  back  at  once 
to  Siam,  and  he  must  go  wdth  it.  When  only 
one  day  out  from  Hong  Kong,  the  ship  was 
wrecked,  and  all  on  board  were  lost. 

When  I  heard  this  news,  I  did  not  cry,  ex- 
cept in  secret ;  for  I  feared  that  the  heathen 
around  me  would  say  that  my  God  was  not 
good.  I  thought,  too,  that  I  must  set  the  weak 
Christians  an  example  of  submission  to  the  will 
of  God.  I  have  felt  that  my  grief  was  greater 
than  I  could  bear ;  but  I  have  kept  it  shut  up 
in  my  heart,  and  have  never,  until  to-day,  told 
any  one  how  great  it  was. 

I   have  nothing  now  to  rest  my  heart  upon 


I  86  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

but  the  hope  of  heaven.  I  have  been  deeply 
troubled  ;  but  without  the  trouble  I  should 
not  have  been  saved.  I  am  strong,  and  have 
perhaps  many  years  to  live  ;  and  if  I  can  but 
lead  many  to  believe  in  the  Lord,  that  will  be 
joy  enough  for  me  here. 


CHAPTER    XXIV. 

ORCHID    LOSES    SEVEN-TENTHS    OF    HER    SORROW. 

Mv  name  is  Orchid.  I  am  twenty-eight  years 
old,  and  have  been  a  Christian  one  year.  My 
home  is  at  White  Pagoda,  and  I  have  lived 
there  with  my  mother-in-law  ever  since  I  was 
two  months  old.  My  father  was  a  farmer,  and 
could  have  taken  care  of  me  ;  but  shortly  after 
my  birth  a  blind  fortune-teller  came  along  and 
told  my  mother  that  my  brother,  who  was  two 
years  older  than  I,  would  die  unless  I  was  re- 
moved from  the  family.  Blind  fortune-tellers 
are  to  be  found  everywhere.  They  travel 
around,  led  by  a  child  that  can  see,  beating  a 
little  gong  to  let  people  know  they  are  passing. 
Those  who  wish  to  consult  the  fortune-teller 
call  him  to  their  door,  tell  him  the  year,  month, 
day,  and  hour  of  their  birth,   and  he  makes  a 

187 


l88  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

calculation  of  times,  and  tells  them  what  is 
going  to  happen.  Those  who  are  sick,  ask  him 
when  they  will  get  well  ;  those  who  have  ab- 
sent relatives  inquire  when  letters  or  money 
will  come  from  abroad  ;  those  who  are  going  on 
a  journey  seek  a  lucky  day  for  starting  ;  and 
those  who  wish  to  know  what  is  going  to  hap- 
pen to  their  children,  call  him  to  predict  their 
fates.  He  gives  a  few  words  of  advice  to  the 
person  concerned,  is  paid  three-tenths  of  a  cent 
for  his  services,  and  goes  on  his  way. 

It  w^as  in  this  way  that  my  parents  learned 
that  they  ought  to  part  with  me.  They  were  very 
sorry  to  have  me  go,  but  as  a  boy  is  of  so  much 
greater  value  than  a  girl,  they  would  not  risk 
my  brother's  life  by  keeping  me.  They  gave 
me  to  an  acquaintance  at  White  Pagoda,  who 
had  just  lost  a  young  child,  and  she  brought 
me  up  as  the  future  wife  of  her  youngest  son, 
then  five  years  old.  As  such  very  little  girls 
are  worth  nothing,  and  as  the  bargain  must  be 
closed  by  money,  she  paid  my  mother  two  cents 
for  me,  and  I  became  hers.  She  had  had  twelve 
children  in  all,  but  my  husband  was  the  only 
survivor.  Her  husband  smoked  opium,  and 
spent  the  money  his  children  earned,  so  that 
one  of  his  sons  had  hanged  himself  in  despair. 


ORCHID.  189 

My  mother-in-law  always  gave  me  the  best 
she  had,  but  that  was  not  much.  I  grew  strong 
and  large,  and  when  I  was  eight  years  old  I 
could  cook,  spin,  plant  rice,  and  help  turn  the 
pump  with  which  the  rice-field  was  watered. 
When  I  was  fifteen,  on  a  day  chosen  as  lucky, 
I  had  the  god  of  the  bedstead  set  up  in  a  room 
of  my  own,  and  lived  with  my  husband.  After 
some  years  I  had  two  sons.  My  father-in-law 
died  ;  and  then  we  found  that  the  land  on  which 
our  house  was  built  belonged  to  some  one  else. 
The  owner  tore  it  down  and  made  a  rice-drying 
area  where  it  stood.  We  then  mortgaged  our 
only  field,  for  forty  dollars,  and  with  this  money 
built  two  houses,  which  fell  down  soon  after  in 
a  season  of  heavy  rain. 

Three  3'ears  ago,  a  man  in  our  village  became 
a  Christian  :  soon  after  that  two  Bible-women 
came  to  stop  at  his  house.  My  mother-in-law 
and  I  used  to  take  the  children  in  the  evening 
and  go  to  hear  them  talk.  My  husband  heard 
too,  and  we  all  believed  at  the  same  time. 
My  mother-in-law  went  one  Sunday  morning 
five  miles  to  Linden  Chapel,  and  when  she 
came  back  at  night  she  went  straight  to  the 
god  of  the  bedstead,  and  took  it  out  of  doors 
and    threw    it    away.      Afterward    the    Bible- 


IQO  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

woman  named  Love  came  to  the  house,  and 
after  engaging  in  prayer  took  down  the  only 
other  idol  in  the  house,  the  one  we  had  inher- 
ited from  ancestors,  and  put  it  with  its  fixtures 
in  a  basket,  which  my  mother-in-law  carried  and 
threw  into  the  river. 

When  my  own  father  and  mother  heard  that 
I  had  become  a  Christian,  they  were  very  much 
distressed  ;  my  mother  cried,  and  my  father 
could  not  eat  for  four  days.  My  aunt  came 
to  tell  me  how  displeased  they  were,  and  that 
they  wished  me  to  put  away  this  new  religion, 
but  I  told  her  to  say  that  anything  else  they 
might  ask  of  me  I  could  do,  but  that  this  re- 
ligion was  something  that  could  not  be  put 
away. 

Last  year  my  husband,  finding  the  times 
hard,  and  hoping  to  earn  something  abroad, 
went  to  Manila.  Before  he  went,  he  did  not 
call  a  fortune-teller  to  find  a  lucky  day,  and  did 
not  go  to  the  temple  to  get  a  bag  of  incense 
ashes  to  wear  as  a  charm  on  his  breast,  as  he 
would  have  done  had  he  not  been  a  Christian  ; 
but  we  knelt  down,  with  the  children,  and  asked 
God  to  take  care  of  us  while  he  was  gone,  and 
bless  him  while  away,  and  bring  him  safely 
back. 


ORCHID..  191 

Last  month  my  eldest  son,  eleven  years  old, 
was  baptized.  I  did  not  know  it  beforehand, 
though  four  months  previous  he  had  told  me  he 
wished  to  join  the  church.  He  did  not  tell  me 
because  he  was  afraid  the  brethren  would  not 
receive  him.  I  was  surprised,  and  thanked  God, 
when  I  saw  him  at  the  place  of  baptism. 

My  youngest  son  is  five  years  old  and  my 
mother-in-law  takes  care  of  him  while  I  am 
away  from  home.  We  have  a  house  of  one 
room,  which  is  mortgaged  for  nine  dollars.  My 
husband  lately  sent  home  ten  dollars  ;  but  it  was 
all  used  in  paying  my  father-in-law's  debts. 

I  have  been  sorrowful  from  my  childhood  up. 
I  have  never  known  a  time  when  I  had  not 
reason  for  great  anxiety.  But  during  the  past 
year,  though  my  earthly  circumstances  remain 
the  same,  I  have  been  almost  happy.  I  know 
that  there  is  a  Saviour  and  a  heaven,  and  that 
has  taken  away  seven-tenths  of  the  weight  of 
my  troubles. 


CHAPTER    XXV. 

love's  purposes. 

I  WAS  born  at  the  village  of  Lo  Poi,  thirty- 
one  years  ago.  My  father  died  just  before  I 
was  born,  but  I  had  elder  brothers  who  helped 
my  mother  in  the  support  of  the  family.  When 
I  was  sixteen  years  old  I  was  married  into  the 
village  of  Kam  E,  a  league  away  from  my 
home.  My  mother  got  twenty-eight  dollars  at 
my  betrothal,  and  at  my  marriage  two  hundred 
pounds  of  pastry  and  confectionery,  worth 
eighteen  dollars  more.  People  now  pay  almost 
double  what  they  then  did  for  their  daughters- 
in-law.  I  do  not  know  whether  it  is  because 
money  is  more  plentiful  or  because  girls  are 
more  scarce. 

My  husband  was  the  second  of  five  sons,  and 
sixteen  years  older  than  I.  I  neither  liked  nor 
disliked   him   at   first.      i\Iy   mother-in-law   was 

kind  to  me,  and  my  sister-in-law  friendly.     At 

192 


love's  purposes.  ig-. 

first  my  husband  seldom  said  anything  to  me 
except  to  tell  me  to  do  thing-s  about  the  house. 
After  we  got  acquainted,  we  talked  together  in 
private,  but  never  when  any  one  saw  us.  In 
this  country  young  married  people  do  not  speak 
to  each  other  in  the  presence  of  the  husband's 
father  and  mother,  nor  of  any  of  the  older  mem- 
bers of  the  family.  We  often  talked  together 
in  our  own  room  about  family  and  neighbor- 
hood affairs. 

My  first  child  was  a  boy,  but  he  died  when 
only  a  few  days  old,  and  I  adopted  a  little  girl 
two  years  old  and  brought  her  up  in  his  stead. 
The  following  year  my  only  other  child,  my  son 
Perfection,  was  born. 

At  first  my  husband  was  moral,  but  he  took 
suddenly  to   gambling,   and   kept   at   it  for  six- 
years.      He   lost    much    money,   got   into   debt, 
and  was  very  bad-tempered.     About  sex-en  years 
ago,  Silver  Flower,  who  is  my  aunt  by  marriage, 
became  a  Christian      She  came  to  me  and  told 
me  about  the  true  God,  but  there  was  no  one 
else  in  our  village  who  believed  as  she  did,  and 
every  one  derided  her  religion,  and  disliked  her 
for  teaching  it.     I  had  spent  much  time  with 
her  before,  but  for  three  years  after  she  became 
a  Christian  I  never  went  to  her  house,  and  sel- 


194  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

dom  spoke  to  her.  But  one  night  I  dreamed  a 
curious  dream.  I  thought  that  the  sky  was  all 
on  fire,  and  people  everywhere  were  weeping 
and  wailing.  I  got  up  and  went  out  of  our 
door,  and  there  stood  Aunt  Silver  Flower,  look- 
ing up  calmly  into  the  sky,  and  her  garments 
were  all  glistening  and  beautiful.  I  knelt  down 
by  her  and  took  hold  of  the  hem  of  her  garment 
and  said,  "  What  shall  I  do  to  be  saved  ?  "  Then 
there  was  a  crash,  and  I  woke.  After  that,  I 
kept  wondering  at  my  having  had  such  a  dieam, 
and  was  so  troubled  in  my  mind  that  at  last  I 
went  and  told  it  to  Aunt  Silver  Flower.  She 
said  that  there  would  come  a  day  when  God 
would  judge  the  world,  and  it  would  all  be 
burned  up.  She  talked  much  about  true  doc- 
trines, and  I  told  my  husband  all  that  she  said. 
He  said  that  he  would  himself  go  to  the  chapel 
in  the  district  city  ten  miles  off,  and  see  whether 
what  was  tau2:ht  there  was  srood  or  bad.  He 
went  two  Sundays,  and  then  said  that  I  could 
go  too  if  I  wished.  He  soon  stopped  gambling 
and  changed  into  another  man.  He  had  been 
very  bad-tempered  while  he  gambled,  but  after 
he  became  a  Christian  he  became  inexpressibly 
good.  After  five  months  he  went  secretly  away 
to  Singapore.      He  owed   sixty  dollars  in   Kam 


LOVE  S    PURPOSES.  T95 

E,  and  he  knew  that  if  I  thousfht  he  was  s-oing- 
away  I  would  cry,  and  his  creditors  would  find 
out  that  he  was  going  and  would  prevent  him. 
So  he  went  without  telling  me,  but  he  soon 
wrote  back  and  let  me  know  where  he  \vas.  I 
kept  on  going  to  the  chapel,  and  four  years  ago 
I  was  baptized.  After  that,  I  learned  to  read 
the  gospel,  and  I  have  now  been  to  seventy 
villages  with  the  Lord's  message.  I  do  not 
know  how  many  women  have  believed  it.  I 
am  sure  of  only  a  very  few  who  have  become 
Christians  because  of  my  words. 

My  daughter  is  now  twelve  years  old,  and  is 
in  school.  I  shall  betroth  her  to  no  one  but  a 
Christian,  and  shall  never  have  her  feet  bound. 
It  is  difficult  to  find  a  desirable  husband  for  her. 
I  cannot  let  her  go  far  from  our  home,  for  I 
must  see  her  often.  She  must  be  married  to 
some  one  who  has  land  or  a  trade,  that  she  and 
her  children  may  have  food  ;  and  to  some  one 
whose  mother  will  treat  her  kindly.  It  is 
hard  to  find  all  that  is  essential  in  one  family. 
When  Christians  are  more  numerous,  the  duty 
of  Christian  parents  to  their  daughters  will  be 
more  easily  performed. 

My  son  is  now  nine  years  old,  and  is  in 
school.       He    has    applied    for    baptism    three 


196  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

times,  but  the  brethren  say  he  is  too  small  to  be 
a  church-member  yet,  and  should  wait  awhile. 

My  husband  gets  six  dollars  a  month  now  in 
Singapore,  and  last  year  he  sent  home  forty 
dollars.  I  have  just  paid  the  last  dollar  of  his 
debts,  and  he  says  he  will  soon  come  home.  I 
pray  every  day  for  him,  and  that  he  may  soon 
come  back.  I  want  him  to  come,  and  learn  to 
preach.  He  can  read  quite  well  now,  and  he 
himself  writes  all  the  letters  he  sends  me. 
When  he  comes  back  I  shall  still  be  a  Bible- 
woman.  If  I  lived  at  home  with  my  husband  I 
could  still  teach  our  relatives  and  neighbors, 
but  I  could  not  teach  nearly  so  many  people  as 
I  now  do.  I  should  like  my  husband  to  come 
and  be  a  preacher,  and  then  I  should  be  wholly 
happy.  I  do  not  plan  much  for  my  future,  but 
trust  to  God  to  order  it  all  ari£rht  for  me. 


CHAPTER    XXVI. 

ONE   night's  work. 

My  name  is  Minute.  I  am  now  forty-five 
years  old,  and  my  son  is  eleven.  I  was  born 
on  the  border  of  the  Piakka  Country.  The 
people  in  the  villages  west  of  us  all  spoke  the 
Hakka  language,  and  those  in  the  villages  east 
of  us  all  spoke  the  Tie  Chiu.  These  dialects 
are  so  different  that  a  person  who  knows  only 
one  cannot  understand  what  is  said  in  the  other. 
I  learned  both  in  my  childhood,  and  can  now 
speak  them  with  equal  ease.  My  father  owned 
land,  and  we  lived  comfortably.  Indeed  my  lot 
has  been  a  pleasant  one  compared  with  that  of 
other  women,  for  though  I  have  never  been  very 
happy,  neither  have  I  been  very  miserable. 
Hakka  women  do  not  have  their  feet  bound. 
They  work  in  the  fields,  and  are  more  strong 
and  comfortable  than  women  who  work  indoors 
with  crippled  feet.     They  do  not  depend  on  the 

197 


igS  PAGUDA    .>-lIAUO\VS. 

gods  very  much  either,  and  only  worship  them 
four  times  a  year. 

I  was  the  eldest  in  a  family  of  five  children  ; 
was  betrothed  when  I  was  fifteen,  and  married 
when  I  was  seventeen  years  old.  My  husband's 
father  was  dead,  and  there  were  four  sisters-in- 
law  of  us,  who  lived  with  our  mother-in-law. 
After  a  few  years  my  husband  died,  leaving  me 
with  one  son.  We  had  two  acres  of  land,  and 
a  room  in  the  house,  as  our  share  of  the  ances- 
tral property,  and  lived  much  as  our  neighbors 
did. 

Two  years  ago  there  was  no  Christian  in  our 
village  except  my  nephew  Gek.  He  had  heard 
the  gospel  at  Linden  Chapel,  seven  miles  away, 
and  always  went  there  on  Sundays.  He  often 
said  to  me  that  I  ought  to  worship  God,  but  I 
did  not  know  who  God  w^as,  and  did  not  wish  to 
be  bothered  with  any  new^  doctrines.  One  day 
two  Bible-women  came  to  our  village,  and  sat 
in  Gek's  house  and  talked,  and  many  women 
went  to  hear  them.  I  was  interested  in  what 
they  said,  but  their  words  did  not  really  enter 
my  mind,  nor  reach  my  heart.  When  it  grew 
late,  they  said  that  if  we  would  like  to  hear 
more  they  would  stay  all  night,  and  I  invited 
them  to  sleep  with  me.     After  we  had  gone  to 


ONE    iNKIHT  S    WORK.  IQQ 

bed,  they  talked  till  nearl)-  morning.  They  told 
me  who  God  was,  and  what  he  did,  and  about 
heaven  and  the  Lord.  I  shall  never  forget 
what  they  said  that  night.  I  believed  it  ;  and 
my  son,  nine  years  old,  heard  all  they  said  and 
believed  also.  Afterward  he  kept  saying  to  me, 
"Mother,  let's  be  Christians." 

The-chapel  was  so  far  away  that  I  eould  not 
go  to  it  on  Sundays,  but  I  joined  the  Bible- 
women  and  came  by  boat  to  Swatow  one  time. 
On  the  way  back  I  passed  my  mother's  house 
and  stopped  to  see  her,  and  she  was  very  angry 
about  my  having  been  to  Swatow.  She  said, 
'*  Why  should  you  who  have  enough  to  eat,  and 
are  a  woman  of  good  reputation,  go  wandering 
off  to  distant  towns  as  if  you  were  a  beggar  or 
worse  ?  Who  has  deluded  you  into  such  con- 
duct .^ "  I  told  her  that  I  went  to  get  some- 
thing that  I  wanted  more  than  anything  else, 
and  that  I  should  try  to  obtain  at  any  cost.  But 
my  mother  would  not  understand  me,  and  was 
never  pacified  until  my  brother  came  and  saw 
the  women's  school,  and  went  back  and  told 
her  that  the  people  here  were  eminently  respect- 
able, and  that  the  doctrine  taught  was  righteous. 

There  are  now  ten  Christians  in  my  village, 
and  one  of  them  is  my  sister-in-law.  My  moth- 
er-in-law has  just  died,  a  believer. 


CHAPTER    XXVII. 

THE  HERB  THAT  GREW  ON  A  PIRATE  ISLAND. 

Mv  parents  lived  in  one  of  a  cluster  of  eigh 
teen  villages.  My  father  was  wealthy,  and  in 
my  childhood  I  was  well  cared  for.  The  only 
real  suffering  I  remember  having  endured  m 
those  days,  was  that  of  having  my  feet  bound, 
when  I  was  fourteen  years  old. 

Now  that  I  hav^e  come  to  know  true  doctrine, 
I  know  that  foot-binding  is  a  very  wicked  and 
injurious  custom.  God  gave  us  our  eyes  and 
hands  and  feet  as  implements  with  which  to 
do  his  work,  and  we  are  very  wicked  when  we 
destroy  any  of  them.  In  remodeling  our  feet, 
we  declare  that  the  pattern  by  which  He  makes 
feet  does  not  suit  us,  and  that  we  ourselves  can 
improve  His  handiwork.  But  women  cannot  be 
natural-footed,  unless  men  are  taught  that  such 
are  desirable  for  wives. 

I  was  not  to  have  been  married  until  I  was 


HERB.  20I 

twenty,  but  there  was  a  feud  between  the  vil- 
lages, five  small  ones  uniting  against  our  large 
one,  and  the  consequent  insecurity  of  life  and 
property,  made  my  parents  consent  to  my  leav- 
ing them  when  I  was  eighteen.  My  new  home 
was  on  the  island  of  Sun  Bue,  across  a  strait 
from  the  eighteen  villages.  The  people  of  this 
island  were  so  turbulent,  that  when  there  was  a 
settlement  of  the  boundary  line  between  the 
two  districts  on  the  opposite  sides  of  the  bay, 
neither  magistrate  wanted  Sun  Bue  under  his 
control,  and  each  tried  to  palm  it  off  on  the 
other.  But  they  put  chaff  on  the  water  at  the 
head  of  the  bay  at  full  tide,  and  when  at  the  ebb 
It  floated  northward  of  Sun  Bue,  the  mao:is- 
trate  of  the  southern  district  had  to  take  the 
island  under  his  government.  The  island  had 
only  one  village  upon  it,  and  the  people  were 
too  few  and  weak  to  dare  to  be  very  bad.  But 
the  coves  around  the  island  harbored  pirate 
boats,  that  came  out  to  attack  and  plunder  all 
boats  with  weaker  crews  that  ran  between  the 
cities  above  and  below  They  sold  the  goods 
and  held  the  passengers  for  ransom.  The  sums 
received  for  the  ransom  of  a  prisoner  varied 
with  his  ability  to  pay.  I  did  not  hear  of  any 
one  for  whom  the  pirates  got  over  two  hundred 
dollars. 


202  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

The  family  into  which  I  was  married  was  a 
large  one,  and  there  were  twenty  people  who  ate 
in  our  house.  I  and  my  sister-in  law  had  all 
the  cooking  to  do,  and  as  I  had  never  worked 
much  in  my  father's  house,  it  was  at  first 
very  hard  for  me.  My  sister-in-law  and  I  took 
turns  in  getting  up  before  daylight  to  pound 
the  husks  off  the  rice  for  the  day's  consump- 
tion. We  had  also  the  pigs  and  ducks  to  feed, 
all  the  water  to  carry,  and  the  washing  to  do. 
My  husband  was  a  fisherman.  I  had  three  sons 
and  six  daughters,  but  as  no  one  kept  more 
than  three  girls,  I  cast  away  three  of  mine.  I 
did  not  then  know,  as  I  now  do,  that  infanticide 
is  a  great  sin.  One  of  my  sons  died,  and  my 
three  daughters  are  now  grown  and  married. 
I  have  not  yet  secured  wives  for  my  two  living 
sons.  The  pirate  boats  were  dispersed,  and  the 
island  made  inoffensive,  when  General  Pang 
came  into  power  some  years  ago. 

Five  years  ago,  when  I  was  forty -five  }ears 
old,  a  missionary  lady  came  to  Sun  Bue,  and 
sat  down  and  talked  with  the  women  in  my 
neisfhbor's  house.  I  went  and  heard  what  she 
said,  and  after  she  went  away  I  asked  my  sister- 
in-law  where  she  thought  the  place  where  there 
was  no  sickness  nor  weeping,   could  be.     She 


HERB. 


^03 


said  she  did  not  well  know,  but  she  thought 
it  was  somewhere  in  Hades.  Then  a  Bible- 
woman  came  and  taught  us  more,  and  I  took 
the  charms  off  the  door  posts  of  our  house,  and 
off  my  sons'  necks,  and  ceased  to  trust  in  idols. 
The  Bible-woman  stayed  some  days,  and  slept 
with  my  sister-in-law,  but  then  some  of  the 
neighbors  drove  her  away,  and  said  that  if  we 
let  any  more  heresy-teaching  women  come  and 
lodge  in  our  house,  they  would  tear  it  down. 
But  my  husband  and  sons  and  sister-in-law  and 
I  prayed  to  the  true  God  together  every  day, 
with  the  doors  shut.  After  awhile  the  neidi- 
bors  let  the  Bible-woman  come  back,  and  made 
no  more  violent  objection  to  her  teaching  in 
the  village.  Now  all  there  have  heard  the  gos- 
pel, though  only  a  few  have  believed  it. 


CHAPTER    XXVIII. 

TAPESTRY. 

The  village  in  which  I  was  born  was  one  of 
many  on  the  north  bank  of  the  Crooked  River. 
I  suppose  there  were  fifty  villages  within  a 
circle  having  a  radius  of  three  miles.  These 
villages  were  continually  engaged  in  feuds. 
They  were  so  from  tirj^s  long  before  I  was 
born,  until  General  Pang  came  into  power,  and 
he  reduced  the  country  to  subjection  and  or- 
der. Sometimes  the  feud  was  between  clan  and 
clan,  sometimes  between  village  and  village,  and 
sometimes  between  different  families  in  the 
same  village.  The  weak  gave  their  adherence 
to  the  more  powerful,  and  depended  on  them 
for  protection.  When  the  feud  was  between 
clan  and  clan  it  was  less  disastrous,  for  then 
there  was  a  greater  number  on  one  side,  and 
some  could  safely  engage  in  peaceful  occupa- 
tions. But  when  it  was  between  village  and 
204 


CRESS. 

HERB. 
BUILDER. 


MINUTE. 

SILVER   FLOWER. 
ORCHID. 


LOVE. 
KEEPSAKE. 
TRE.ASURE. 


TAPESTRY.  •  207 

village  it  was  very  distressing  to  all  concerned. 
The  unripe  grain  would  be  cut  down,  the  grown 
sugar-cane  destroyed,  the  sweet-potatoes  and 
peanuts  pulled  up  by  enemies  in  the  night, 
and  nothing  was  safe.  In  those  days  people 
did  not  dare  go  outside  the  village  after  night- 
fall for  fear  of  being  killed  or  kidnapped.  The 
highways  were  unsafe  both  for  travellers  and 
for  goods.  My  own  grandfather  had  owned 
much  land,  but  had  had  to  sell  it  to  ransom  my 
father,  who  had  been  kidnapped  and  taken  to  a 
powerful  village  of  another  clan. 

It  was  because  of  these  feuds  that  my  family 
was  poor  when  I  was  born.  I  was  the  oldest 
child  and  only  daughter,  and  was  beloved  by  my 
parents.  My  mother  betrothed  me  when  I  was 
but  ten  years  old  to  a  boy  of  my  own  age  in  a 
neighboring  village.  When  I  was  fourteen  my 
mother  died,  and  although  the  time  for  my  mar- 
riage had  not  arrived,  my  future  mother-in-law 
at  once  took  me  to  her  own  house.  This 
mother-in-law  was  of  a  cruel  disposition,  and 
very  oppressive  to  her  sons'  wives.  Her  eldest 
son,  an  adopted  one,  had  taken  his  wife  and 
gone  to  live  in  another  house  ;  her  second  son 
had  a  wife,  nineteen  years  old,  in  the  house  ; 
and    I   was    to    be    the    third    son's   wife.     My 


208  .  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

sister-in-law  seldom  saw  her  husband,  and  I 
never  saw  my  betrothed.  I  do  not  even  now 
know  whether  he  was  short  or  tall.  My  sister 
in-law  and  I  slept  in  the  same  room  with  our 
mother-in-law,  and  lived  in  the  back  part  of  a 
house  whose  front  was  a  shop  where  the  men 
lived  and  transacted  business.  We  cooked  the 
meals,  and  a  small  boy  came  and  took  them  to 
the  room  where  the  men  ate,  while  we  ate  by 
ourselves  in  the  women's  apartments.  Shortly 
after  I  went  to  this  house  my  sister  in  law  told 
me  that  she  intended  to  kill  herself,  and  I  soon 
agreed  to  join  her  m  suicide.  This  is  not  an 
uncommon  thing  for  unhappy  daughters-in-law 
to  do.  In  the  village  of  Sieh  Tie,  near  ours, 
there  were  seven  girls  who  made  a  compact  to 
drown  themselves  together  The  time  fixed 
upon  was  noonday,  and  the  rendezvous  a  lone 
spot  on  the  bank  of  the  river.  It  happened  that 
four  of  the  girls  were  employed  in  preparing 
the  family  meal,  and  could  not  go  at  the  set 
time.  The  other  three  bound  their  wrists  to 
gether,  with  the  youngest,  who  was  only  four 
teen  years  old,  in  the  middle,  and  thus  threw 
themselves  into  the  river,  where  their  bodies 
were  afterward  found.  At  Sin  Hu  three  girls, 
two  of  whom  were  lately  married,  also  drowned 


TAPESTRV.  209 

tliemselves  together.  They  were  heard  run- 
ning on  the  bank,  and  were  seen  by  fishermen 
when  they  jumped  into  the  river,  but  were  sup- 
posed to  be  ghosts  until  some  one  argued  that 
the  footsteps  of  ghosts  did  not  resound,  nor  did 
ghosts  splash  the  water  wdien  descending  into 
it. 

One  day,  when  our  mother-in-law  was  away, 
my  sister-in-law  got  a  rope  and  fastened  it  over 
a  beam,  and  made  all  ready  for  our  hanging 
ourselves.  But  when  she  got  upon  the  bed- 
stead to  try  the  noose  I  was  terribly  frightened, 
and  begged  her  to  desist,  saying  that  if  she  did 
it  first  I  should  be  so  horrified  that  1  could  not 
follow  her.  She  then  said  she 'would  wait  till 
another  day,  and  that  as  I  had  a  father  who 
loved  me  and  might  help  me,  I  had  better  live. 
Shortly  after,  my  father  sent  for  me  to  come 
home  on  a  visit,  and  as  my  mother-in-law  did 
not  think  it  wise  to  offend  him, 'she  let  me  go. 
Two  months  later  my  sister-in  law  hung  her- 
self, and  in  the  disgrace  and  trouble  that  fol- 
lowed, I  was  left  at  my  father's  for  some  time. 
There  was  one  woman  in  our  village  whose 
daughter-in-law  hung  herself,  and  when  the 
mother-in-law  came  m  and  found  her  thus,  she, 
fearing  the  demands  that  would  be  made  upon 


2IO  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

her  by  the  girl's  parents,  got  another  rope  at 
once,  and  hung  herself  beside  her  daughter-in- 
law.  There  could  then  be  no  e.xactions  by  the 
friends  of  either  party,  for  each  had  harmed  the 
other  to  the  same  degree. 

My  mother-in-law  did  not  hang  herself  ;  but 
fearing  that  I  also  might  do  her  some  harm  she 
decided  to  marry  me  off.  She  got  for  me  as 
much  as  she  had  previously  paid  for  me,  about 
forty  dollars.  Wives  are  much  dearer  now  than 
they  were  then,  and  one  cannot  be  got  in  our 
village  for  less  than  seventy  dollars  of  betrothal 
money.  I  was  then  nearly  seventeen  years  old. 
I  was  glad  to  go  from  a  husband  who  was  in- 
visible, and  a  mother-in-law  who  was  hateful,  to 
another  house.  My  second  mother-in-law  was 
kind,  and  my  husband  was  an  upright  and  affec- 
tionate man.  He  was  twelve  years  older  than 
I,  and  was  engaged  in  business.  I  had  three 
children,  and  my  husband  was  fond  of  them, 
good  to  me,  and  very  filial  to  his  old  mother. 

Ten  years  ago,  when  I  was  twenty-five.  Gen- 
eral Pang  subdued  the  clans,  burned  the  houses 
of  those  who  would  not  desist  from  feuds,  and 
severely  punished  many  as  a  warning  to  the 
rest.  As  my  husband  had  been  engaged  in 
supplying    the    combatants    with    powder    and 


TAPESTRY.  211 

shot,  and  as  his  neighbors  chose  to  put  him 
forward  to  receive  the  punishment  that  must 
be  dealt  out  to  some  one  in  our  village,  and  as 
he  had  not  money  with  which  to  pay  a  fine,  he 
fled  to  Singapore,  whereupon  General  Pang 
banished  him  for  twelve  years.  When  he  went 
he  was  greatly  grieved  at  parting  with  the  chil- 
dren, and  knelt  down  and  did  obeisance  to  his 
mother.  My  youngest  child  was  ten  months  old 
when  he  went.  He  has  been  gone  nine  years. 
I  wish  he  could  secretly  come  and  see  me  and 
the  children,  and  then  go  back  undiscovered  by 
his  enemies  Some,  who  were  banished  and 
who  returned  too  soon,  have  been  caught  and 
beheaded. 

Three  years  ago  I  was  at  the  district  city  to 
buy  flax,  and  met  an  acquaintance  who  was  go- 
ing to  the  chapel,  and  who  asked  me  to  go  with 
her.  I  went,  and  was  much  pleased  with  the 
doctrine  I  heard  there,  but  after  I  got  home  my 
neighbors  derided  me  for  having  been  there, 
and  I  did  not  go  again.  Afterward  a  chapel 
was  opened  a  league  from  our  village,  and  I 
told  one  of  my  male  relatives  to  go  and  see 
whether  it  was  a  place  where  I  ought  to  go,  and 
he  went  for  several  Sundays,  and  then  said  I 
bad  better  go  too.     I  went  constantly  after  that, 


212  I'AC.ODA    >liAl)()\\S. 

and  became  a  church-member.  There  are  now 
twenty  Christians  in  our  village,  and  they  have 
contributed  forty  dollars  toward  the  new  chapel 
that  is  to  be  built.  My  children  believe  as  I 
do,  and  I  have  written  to  my  husband  that  he 
must  worship  God.  I  pray  every  day  that  he 
may  live  to  come  back,  and  that  our  family  may 
all  be  Christians. 

Chinese  women  do  not  know  that  it  is  wicked 
to  kill  themselves.  It  is  only  we  who  have 
been  taught  that  we  are  God's  property,  that 
dare  not  destroy  what  is  His.  It  is  only  wc 
who  know  that  we  have  a  heaven  to  go  to,  and 
need  time  to  get  ready,  that  value  our  lives 
aright. 


CHAPTER    XXIX. 

OUT    OF   THE    DEPTHS. 

I  SUPPOSE  that  of  all  the  women  in  China, 
this  land  where  there  is  so  much  sorrow,  there 
are  not  many  whose  lot  has  been  harder  than 
mine.  I  weep  in  pity  of  myself  when  I  think 
of  my  past  misery,  and  blush  with  shame  when 
I  consider  how  great  have  been  my  sins.  I  owe 
it  to  my  missionary  teacher  that  I  now  know 
that  my  sorrow  need  not  be  everlasting,  and 
that  my  sins  may  be  blotted  out.  Ever  since  I 
learned  that  there  is  a  heaven  and  a  Redeemer, 
this  world  has  been  a  new  one  for  me.  My 
mother  was  reckoned  an  unfortunate  woman  in 
that  she  continually  bore  daughters.  She  had 
more  than  ten  of  them,  though  she  reared  but 
two.  She  had  but  one  son.  My  sister  was 
married  when  I  was  born,  and  my  mother  de- 
cided to  keep  me  alive.  My  brother  was  strong, 
and  was  the  treasure  and  hope  of  his  parents. 

213 


214  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

They  were  at  that  time  in  comfortable  circum- 
stances, owning  a  good  house  and  several  rice- 
fields.  When  my  brother  was  twenty-one  years 
old,  he  was  shot  in  a  clan  feud,  and  my  earliest 
recollection  is  of  the  distress  his  death  occa- 
sioned in  our  family.  I  was  three  years  old, 
and  my  mother  loved  me  devotedly  ;  but  in  this 
country  it  is  of  no  use  to  care  for  girls.  They 
can  only  be  kept  till  they  are  fifteen,  or  there- 
abouts, and  then  they  must  belong  wholly  to 
someone  else.  In  some  places  those  who  have 
an  only  daughter  and  no  sons,  can  adopt  a  son 
and  give  him  their  daughter  for  a  wife,  but  there 
was  no  such  custom  in  our  village,  and  so  my 
parents  could  not  thus  do.  That  they  might 
not  be  alone  in  their  old  age,  and  that  they 
might  have  offerings  made  at  their  graves  after 
death,  they  adopted  a  son  ;  but  he  gambled,  lost 
money,  stole  all  the  valuables  in  the  house,  and 
ran  away.  Then  they  thought  that  one  who 
had  a  v/ife  would  be  more  reliable,  and  hearing 
of  such  an  one  who  was  parentless,  they  brought 
the  couple  to  our  home  and  would  have  made 
them  their  heirs.  But  there  was  soon  a  famine 
in  the  land.  On  our  three  acres  of  rice-field, 
there  was  not  a  spear  of  rice  that  year.  Two 
crops  failed,  and  food  was  four  times  the  usual 


OUT    OF    THE    DEPTHS.  215 

price.  My  father  mortgaged  his  house  and  land 
to  get  money  to  keep  us  from  starving.  Then 
word  came  that  the  village  in  which  my  sister 
lived  was  to  be  burned  by  the  government 
officials,  on  account  of  some  criminal  who  lived 
there,  and  my  sister  soon  after  brought  her 
clothing  and  jewelry  to  my  mother  for  safe 
keeping.  The  next  day  we  heard  that  our  vil- 
lage also  was  to  be  fired,  and  my  mother  took 
my  sister's  valuables  with  our  own  and  deposited 
them  all  with  an  aunt  in  another  village.  Just 
then  my  adopted  brother's  wife  went  away  to 
visit  a  relative  of  hers  at  some  distance,  and 
three  days  later  her  husband  went  t(j  our  aunt, 
told  her  that  the  affair  which  endangered  our 
village  had  been  settled,  and  that  my  mother 
had  sent  him  to  get  all  the  things  in  her  care. 
She  gave  them  to  him,  and  he  took  them  to  a 
pawn-shop,  got  the  money  for  them,  hired  a 
sedan-chair  for  rapid  travelling,  joined  his  wife 
somewhere,  and  we  never  heard  of  either  of 
them  again.  I  was  then  nine  years  old.  After 
that,  the  seasons  were  better,  but  my  father  was 
old  and  could  not  work  hard,  and  had  to  sell  his 
house  to  pay  his  debts.  He  built  a  very  small 
house  in  which  we  lived. 

As  my  mother  loved  me  much,  she  had  diffi- 


2i6  r.xc.oi^A   >H.\i>(>\\<. 

culty  in  finding  a  husband  that  she  thought 
good  enough  for  mc,  and  I  was  not  betrothed 
until  I  was  fifteen,  nor  married  till  I  was  seven- 
teen. My  mother  would  have  kept  me  still 
longer,  only  my  mother-in-law  would  not  con- 
sent. My  mother  got  twenty-four  dollars  and 
a  hundred  pounds  of  pastry  at  my  marriage, 
and  she  gave  me  thirty  garments,  a  washtub, 
two  lanterns,  two  clothes-bags,  a  pillow,  a  cov- 
erlet, and  a  set  of  head-ornaments.  My  mother- 
in-law  lived  two  miles  from  my  mother's  house. 
She  was  not  unkind  to  me.  When  I  was  twen- 
ty-one, my  husband  went  out  of  the  house  one 
morning  a  well  man,  and  was  brought  back 
dead,  —  shot  in  a  clan  feud.  Seven  months 
later  my  oldest  son  was  born.  When  he  was 
three  years  old  the  ancestral  property  was  di- 
vided, and  my  son  had  his  father's  share.  But 
there  was  no  one  to  work  the  land,  and  my 
mother-in-law  wanted  more  sons,  and  so  adopted 
one  in  her  last  son's  place.  I  did  not  know  until 
he  came  to  the  house,  that  I  had  a  new  husband. 
I  was  very  angrv  because  I  had  not  been  con- 
sulted, and  because  proper  precaution  had  not 
been  taken  in  ascertaining  whether  he  was  a 
good  man.  He  lived  with  us  only  one  month. 
During  that  time  he  gambled,  lost  monev,  bor- 


OUT    OF    THE    DEPTFIS.  21/ 

rowed  more  on  the  pretext  of  goin*;-  into  busi- 
ness, and  then  ran  away.  That  same  year  my 
second  son  was  born.  I  thought  then  that  I 
was  miserable,  but  if  my  trouble  had  never 
grown  greater,  I  ought  to  have  counted  myself 
a  happy  woman.  My  mother-in-law  soon  told 
me  that  the  times  were  hard,  and  I  was  young, 
and  she  would  marry  me  out  of  the  family.  To 
this  she  was  instigated  by  my  elder  sister-in- 
law,  who  was  selfish  and  wicked,  and  seemed 
born  to  do  me  harm.  I  told  her  I  would  sup- 
port myself  by  weaving  and  that  I  was  willing 
to  starve  rather  than  marry  again,  and  asked 
her  if  I  had  failed  in  my  duty  to  her,  that  she 
meant  thus  to  disgrace  me.  She  said  she  found 
no  fault  in  me,  but  that  it  was  better  for  me 
to  marry.  Soon  after,  a  go-between,  a  distant 
relative  of  mine,  came  and  told  me  that  an 
honest  and  kind  man  wanted  me,  and  persuaded 
me  that  I  could  do  nothing  wiser  than  to  marry 
him.  I  consented,  and  my  mother-in-law  got 
twenty-six  dollars  and  a  hundred  pounds  of 
pastry  for  me,  and  I  had  no  outfit.  She  kept 
my  oldest  boy,  who  was  her  own  grandson, 
and  gave  me  my  second  son,  whom  she  did  not 
want. 

This  husband  was  a  farmer,  had  no  parents, 


2l8  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

and  had  had  no  wife  before.  He  had  one  rice- 
field  which  he  worked,  and  I  spun  and  wove  to 
help  him  support  the  family.  I  had  two  more 
sons  and  one  daughter,  but  we  did  not  keep  the 
latter.  It  was  \ery  hard  living,  even  when  my 
husband  was  well  and  could  work,  but  he  was 
taken  sick,  and  though  I  worked  hard  I  could 
not  fill  five  mouths  and  buy  medicines.  He  had 
consumption  for  three  years,  and  then  we  were 
forced  to  consider  whether  we  would  sell  our 
one  rice-field,  or  one  of  the  children.  Without 
the  rice-field  those  left  could  not  live,  and  we 
decided  to  sell  our  youngest  boy,  then  three  years 
old,  and  for  him  we  got  twenty-five  dollars.  One 
month  later  my  husband  died.  I  could  not 
afford  the  expense  of  a  funeral,  with  procession, 
mourning  garments,  music  and  a  feast,  but  I 
bought  a  coffin  for  two  dollars,  and  paid  one 
dollar  for  the  burial.  Then  with  the  rice-field, 
and  by  my  weaving,  I  managed  to  support  my 
two  remaining  boys  and  myself. 

One  day  I  asked  my  cousin  where  my  uncle 
was,  and  heard  that  he  had  gone  to  see  Linden 
Chapel  which  was  just  finished.  It  was  in  sight 
from  our  village,  but  I  had  never  been  there. 
I  sat  and  waited  till  my  uncle  came  past  my 
door,  and  then  accosted  him,  and  asked  him  if 


our    OF    THE    DEPTHS.  ^IQ 

it  was  a  good  doctrine  that  was  preached  at 
Linden  Chapel,  and  if  it  was  for  women  as  well 
as  men.  He  answered  that  the  doctrine  was 
good  tidings  for  all  people,  and  that  in  seven 
days  more  there  would  be  another  Sundav, 
when  I  could  go  and  hear  for  myself.  The  next 
Sunday,  I  went  with  my  friend,  Pearl's  mother. 
A  Bible-woman  taught  us  three  sentences  of  a 
prayer,  and  we  both  made  up  our  minds  that 
day  to  put  aw^ay  the  idols  from  our  houses. 
After  hearing  the  preaching  a  few  more  Sun^ 
days,  we  put  the  idols  out,  she  and  I  the  same 
day. 

Soon  after  that,  my  husband's  elder  brother 
who  had  been  abroad  some  years,  sent  me  twen- 
ty-five dollars  by  a  cousin,  the  son  of  the  uncle 
who  had  directed  me  to  the  chapel.  My  brother- 
in-law  had  heard  of  my  husband's  death,  and 
knew  there  was  no  one  but  me  and  my  sons  to 
keep  up  the  worship  of  the  ancestors.  When 
the  cousin  arrived  and  found  that  I  had  become 
a  Christian,  he  would  not  give  me  the  monev. 
He  beat  my  uncle,  his  own  father,  for  going  to 
the  chapel,  and  no  one  dared  take  part  against 
him,  because  he  was  strong  and  violent,  and  we 
Christians  were  so  disliked.  No  one  would  dare 
beat  his  father  for  anything  else  than  being  a 


2  20  PAGODA    SHAHOWJ. 

Christian  ;  and  this  is  the  sole  occasion  on 
which  he  could  do  so  and  be  upheld  by  his 
neighbors.  1  had  much  controversy  with  my 
cousin  about  the  money,  and  he  told  me  that  if 
I  would  stop  worshipping  God,  and  would  wor- 
ship the  family  idols,  he  would  give  me  this 
money,  and  that  my  brother-in-law  would  send 
me  much  more.  I  told  him  that  I  could  not 
well  afford  to  lose  the  money,  but  that  I  could 
still  less  afford  to  lose  my  soul,  and  that  I 
should  always  worship  God.  The  neighbors 
finally  declared  that  the  money  ought  to  be 
given  to  me  in  accordance  with  the  direction  in 
a  letter  sent  with  it,  and  at  last  my  cousin  de 
livered  it  over.  But  he  wrote  to  my  brother-in- 
law  that  I  had  become  a  Christian,  and  so  no 
more  money  was  sent  to  me.  My  sons  agree 
with  me  that  whatever  we  lose  on  earth  we  will 
try  to  gain  in  heaven. 


CHAPTER    XXX. 

THE     MISTS    OF    MORXIXG. 

\Vhp:x  I  was  very  young  I  experienced  neither 
joy  nor  sorrow.  My  mind  was  unenlightened 
and  my  heart  inert,  and  I  reasoned  no  more 
than  did  the  cows  I  tended  in  my  father's 
fields.  My  home  was  in  a  hamlet,  and  I  was 
the  youngest  of  a  family  of  four  sons  and  two 
daughters.  My  father  made  salt  from  sea- 
water,  and  my  brothers  tilled  our  land.  I  used 
to  tend  the  cows,  leading  them  about  by  a  rope 
fastened  to  an  iron  rins;  in  the  nose.  I  often 
went  with  my  father  to  the  salt-pans,  helping 
him  carry  the  light  tools,  and  with  my  brothers 
to  the  rice-fields,  doing  such  work  as  a  child 
might.  I  also  learned  to  spin,  weave,  and  sew. 
My  brothers  taught  me  some  letters,  but  as 
soon  as  I  began  to  really  kn!)w  how  to  read, 
they  said  it  was  not  well  for  women  to  be 
learned,  and  so  ceased  to  teach  me.     When  I 


222  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

was  thirteen  my  feet  were  bound,  and  I  could 
no  longer  go  out  in  the  pleasant  fields,  nor  do 
any  active  work.  At  sixteen  I  was  married 
into  a  village  near  ours.  The  family  into  which 
I  went  had  at  that  time  land  and  houses,  but 
my  husband  and  his  brothers  gambled  and  lost 
much  money,  and  after  I  had  been  there  one 
year  they  all  went  away  to  foreign  parts,  where 
they  afterward  died.  My  mother-in-law  adopted 
a  son  and  daughter  for  me,  and  I  lived  with  her 
till  I  was  thirty-three  years  old.  By  that  time 
we  were  so  reduced  in  poverty,  that  I  married 
off  my  adopted  daughter,  gave  away  my  adopted 
son,  and  married  my  present  husband,  who  was 
a  widower  with  a  son  and  two  daughters.  The 
son  is  now  abroad  and  the  daughters  are  mar 
ried.  My  husband  is  a  very  upright  "man,  and 
of  so  peaceful  a  disposition  that  he  would  sooner 
be  deprived  of  his  rights  than  quarrel  in  main- 
taining them.  He  was  an  only  son,  and  his 
parents  were  dead,  so  that  we  lived  by  our- 
selves. He  tilled  his  own  land,  and  some  of 
the  ancestral  estate,  whereby  we  lived  comfort- 
ably. Soon  after  I  was  married  I  had  a  daugh- 
ter, and  named  tier  Light  Follower.  I  did  not 
then  know  anything  of  the  True  Light  which 
she  and  I  were  afterward  to  hear  and  to  follow. 


THE    MISTS    OF    MORNING.  223 

Six    years   later   I   had   another   daughter,   and 
named  her  Jeweled  Branch.. 

We  lived  three  miles  from  the  district  city, 
and  one  day  when  my  husband  was  there  on 
business,  a  cousin  of  his  told  him  about  a 
chapel  that  had  lately  been  opened  there,  and 
asked  him  to  go  and  see  it.  He  went,  and 
heard  the  doctrine  from  the  preacher  there, 
and  when  he  came  home  he  told  me  all  he  had 
heard.  I  at  once  said,  **That  is  good  doctrine, 
and  I  believe  it."  Then  he  said,  "  If  you  ac- 
cept this  doctrine,  you  will  not  burn  incense 
any  more,  nor  go  to  the  temples,  nor  worship 
other  gods  than  this  Great  One  ; "  and  I  an- 
swered, "  Very  well  :  I  will  not,"  and  from  that 
time  I  never  worshipped  idols  again.  My  hus- 
band went  to  the  chapel  on  Sundays,  and  after 
awhile  I  went  with  him.  Chinese  women  do 
not  say  "my  husband."  If  they  wish  to  speak 
affectionately,  they  sa}"  **  the  children's  father;" 
otherwise  they  simply  say  "he."  Neither  do 
husbands  and  wives  walk  together  in  the  street, 
nor  allow  themselves  to  be  seen  in  each  other's 
company.  But  after  we  became  Christians,  my 
husband  and  I  went  together  fo  the  chapel,  for 
we  knew  that  in  the  beginning  God  made  a 
man  and  his  wife  to  be  company  for  each  other, 


224  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

and  that  it  was  His  will  to  have  us  unashamed 
of  each  other.  One  day  my  husband  told  me 
that  he  was  coming  here  to  be  baptized,  and  I 
said  I  would  come  too,  for  if  he  was  f^oins:  to 
heaven  I  did  not  wish  to  be  left  behind  ;  so  we 
both  came  and  were  baptized  the  same  day. 
After  this  my  husband's  relatives  would  not  let 
him  till  the  rice-fields  with  them,  because  he  did 
not  worship  the  ancestors  from  whom  the  fields 
were  inherited,  and  he  gave  up  his  share  ni  the 
common  property.  His  relatives  said  that  our 
new  God  would  not  help  us,  and  that  they  would 
see  us  starve  ;  but  we  trusted  in  the  Lord,  and 
did  not  worship  the  ancestors.  As  the  little 
field  my  husband  owned  was  not  enough  to  sup- 
port us,  and  as  his  brethren  were  so  unfriendly 
that  he  could  not  get  w^ork,  he  had  to  borrow 
money  to  buy  food,  and  was  beaten  by  his  cred- 
itor when  he  could  not  pay.  At  last  we  seemed 
to  have  no  recourse  but  to  sell  our  daui^hter 
Light  Follower,  then  seven  years  old.  She  was 
very  fair  and  gentle,  and  I  had  never  in  her 
life  had  occasion  to  reprove  her.  We  sold  her 
for  twenty-five  dollars  to  a  lady  in  the  district 
city.  This  lady  was  the  wife  of  a  government 
ofificer,  and  had  only  one  child,  a  boy  five  years 
old.      She   bought    Light   Follower  as   a   slave, 


THE    MISTS    OF    MORNIXG.  22^ 

and  intended  to  bring  her  up  and  sell  her  as  an 
inferior  wife  to  some  rich  man.  When  the  mas- 
ter of  the  house  was  at  home,  she  was  very  kind 
to  Light  Follower,  and  gave  her  enough  to  eat, 
but  as  soon  as  he  went  away,  she  was  very  cruel 
to  the  child.  She  made  her  carry  the  boy 
around  on  her  back,  and  if  she  fell  down  she 
whipped  her.  She  starved  her  till  she  would 
gladly  have  picked  out  and  eaten  the  bitter 
skins  of  fruit  that  had  been  cast  into  the  gutter, 
but  she  was  not  allowed  to  do  that,  lest  the 
neighbors  should  see  her  doing  it  and  thus 
know  how  hungry  she  was.  When  this  woman 
was  in  very  bad  temper,  she  would  heat  the 
tongs,  and  pinch  Light  Follower  with  them,  in 
places  where  the  burn  would  not  be  discovered. 
Light  Follower  had  been  there  a  year  and  five 
months  when  I  heard  of  her  misery,  and  heard 
that  her  mistress  hated  her  so  that  she  wished 
to  sell  her.  I  then  came  and  told  the  church 
my  trouble,  and  the  members  gave  me  eight 
dollars.  I  borrowed  three  dollars  from  each  of 
our  two  married  daughters,  and  I  had  seventy 
cents  of  my  own,  and  the  pastor  gave  me  the 
rest  needed  to  make  up  the  twenty-five  dollars, 
and  I  bought  Light  Follower  back  again.  But 
for  a  long  time  we  were  distrusted  and  blamed 
by  the  church  for  having  sold  our  daughter. 


226  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

Six  years  ago  I  had  a  dream,  in  which  I  saw 
a  new  house,  with  snowy  white  walls  rising  up, 
as  yet  unfinished,  and  it  was  ours.  I  told  my 
husband  about  it,  and  laughed  at  myself  for 
dreaming  of  a  new  house  when  we  were  so  poor. 
But  my  husband  reprimanded  me  for  having  so 
little  faith,  and  said  that  we  would  have  plenty 
of  benches  in  our  new  house,  and  invite  the 
neighbors  to  come  in  and  worship  God  with  us 
in  the  evenings.  We  have  now  the  new  house, 
and  a  garden,  and  even  the  benches;  but  as  yet 
we  are  the  only  Christians  in  our  village,  and 
no  one  comes  to  worship  with  us  evenings. 
Our  son  who  is  abroad,  last  year  sent  home 
twelve  dollars  toward  rebuilding  the  house, 
and  we  have  had  new  furniture  made  for  it, 
but  it  is  not  yet  painted. 

Light  Follower  is  a  church-member,  and  is 
very  obedient  and  faithful.  I  shall  never  bind 
the  feet  of  my  daughters,  nor  marry  them  to 
other  than  Christians.- 


I 


A  COOPER. 


CHAPTER    XXXI. 

LIGHT    AT    EVENTIDE. 

I  HAVE  always  lived  in  the  city  of  Kiii  Sii. 
My  parents  were  very  poor.  They  had  no  sons, 
and  I  was  the  second  of  their  three  daughters. 
We  were  all  employed  in  the  making  of  mock 
money,  used  in  the  worship  of  gods  and  spirits. 
The  paper  is  cut  in  sheets  a  few  inches  square, 
and  a  blotch  of  gilding  is  put  on  with  a  brush 
in  the  middle  of  one  side  of  the  sheet.  The 
gilded  sheets  sell  for  from  one  to  ten  cents  per 
hundred,  according  to  their  size.  They  are  used 
on  all  occasions  for  idol-worship,  in  quantities 
depending  on  the  wealth  and  the  devotion  of 
the  worshipper.  They  are  cast  burning  on  the 
water  from  the  prow  of  a  junk  when  it  starts  on 
a  voyage  ;  they  are  scattered  along  the  road  by 
which  a  coffin  is  carried  ;  they  are  laid,  with  a 
stone    on    one   corner,    to   flutter  over  graves ; 

they  are  put  on  the  ground  w^here  an  excava- 

229. 


230  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

tion  is  to  be  made ;  they  are  burned  before 
every  deity  to  whom  a  petition  is  addressed. 
Whatever  else  may  be  absent  from  the  offerings 
brought  to  idols,  this  paper  must  not  be  want- 
ing. It  is  supposed  to  be  the  currency  of  the 
spirit-world,  and  all  spirits  look  kindly  on  a 
present  of  pocket-money. 

Even  when  I  was  a  child,  I  could  earn  some- 
thing in  the  gilding  of  this  paper,  and  often 
worked  at  it  all  day  and  late  into  the  night.  If 
very  industrious,  I  could  earn  as  much, as  five 
cents  a  day. 

When  I  was  eleven  years  old,  I  w^as  betrothed. 
My  mother  then  got  twenty-eight  dollars  for  me, 
and  was  to  have  as  much  more  at  my  marriage  ; 
but  soon  after  my  betrothal  my  husband's  father 
died,  and  his  mother  was  left  with  three  young 
sons  and  little  property.  So  it  was  arranged 
between  her  and  my  parents  that  she  should 
pay  but  ten  dollars  more  for  me,  and  that  I 
should  have  no  money  expended  on  my  wed- 
ding outfit.  I  therefore  had  nothing  new  at  my 
marriage  but  one  or  two  plain  tunics. 

I  was  eighteen  when  I  was  married,  and  my 
husband  was  twenty-four.  There  was  only  one 
room  in  my  mother-in-law^'s  house,  and  I  had  a 
bed  in  one  corner,  and  she  a  bed  in  another 


LIGHT    AT    EVENTIDE.  23 1 

corner.  The  youngest  boy  slept  with  her,  and 
the  next  to  the  youngest  lived  away  from  home. 
My  mother-in-law  was  a  very  severe  person. 
She  often  complained  that  the  room  was  too 
small  for  four  persons  to  live  in,  and  sought  op- 
portunities for  making  me  feel  that  I  was  in  the 
way  ;  but  I  never  opened  my  mouth  to  make  a 
reply  to  her  at  such  times.  While  she  spun,  I 
gilded  paper,  and  drew  myself  into  the  smallest 
possible  space,  and  worked  as  fast  as  I  could, 
and  cried  quietly.  When,  after  four  months,  I 
went  to  visit  my  own  mother,  my  mother-in-law 
took  my  head-dress  and  all  the  girlish  orna- 
ments I  had  possessed  ;  and,  after  I  came  back, 
I  could  never  find  them  again.  Two  years  after 
I  was  married,  I  had  a  daughter.  I  was  always 
hungry,  and  sat  at  my  work  even  when  I  was 
in  great  pain,  not  daring  to  stop,  lest  I  should 
be  more  hungry.  My  mother-in-law  scolded 
me  more  than  ever,  saying  that  there  were 
too  many  mouths  in  the  family.  I  had  another 
daughter,  but  did  not  keep  her.  Then  I  had  a 
son,  and  all  my  acquaintances  were  glad  ;  but 
my  mother-in-law  was  unkinder  than  ever.  She 
took  no  care  of  me  nor  of  the  child  ;  and  she 
left  the  door  open  as  she  went  out  and  came 
in,  so  that  I  constantly  shivered  with  gold,    The 


232  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

same  d-ay  that  my  son  was  born,  I  got  up  from 
bed  and  washed  clothes  and  cooked.  I  stood  on 
the  cold  stones  at  work,  and  soon  had  a  fever 
and  was  in  great  pain.  The  child  had  not 
enough  to  eat,  and  I  secretly  told  my  husband 
that  he  must  get  some  glutinous  rice  with  which 
to  feed  the  baby.  He  got  some  and  brought  it 
to  me,  hiding  it  under  his  jacket  as  he  came  ; 
but  my  mother-in-law  saw  it,  and  reviled  him 
for  loving  this  child  more  than  he  loved  his 
mother.  The  child  had  fits,  and  died  when 
eleven  days  old.  I  cried  over  him  till  my 
eyelids  were  swollen  so  that  I  could  not  open 
them.  I  cried,  but  there  was  no  one  to  pity 
me.  Though  unable  to  open  my  eyes,  I  still 
worked  blindly  at  my  paper-gilding,  and  was 
scolded  if  I  ate  a  bowl  of  porridge.  Once, 
when  very  hungry,  I  took  an  unusual  quantity 
of  porridge  from  the  pot,  and  filled  up  the  de- 
ficiency with  water ;  but  my  mother-in-law  dis- 
covered what  I  had  done,  and  reviled  me  more 
than  ever  before.  Twice,  I  laid  plans  for  killing 
myself ;  but  when  the  time  came,  I  dared  not 
carry  out  my  design. 

My  husband  had  learned  the  trade  of  a  silver- 
smith, and  worked  in  a  town  twenty  miles  away, 
so  he  was  seldom  at  home.     My  mother-in-law 


LIGHT    AT    EVENTIDE.  233 

died  when  I  was  thirty-four.  Soon  after  that, 
my  son  Kim  Kek  was  born,  and  I  was  less  un- 
happy, though  we  were  still  very  poor.  Kim 
Kek  was  a  thoughtful  child  ;  and  when  he  was 
hungry,  he  would  not  cry,  because  he  saw  it 
vexed  me  and  hindered  my  work.  I  decided 
to  become  an  ascetic  and  to  live  the  life  of  a 
Buddhist.  People  do  this  when  they  do  not 
know  the  true  doctrine,  and  suppose  that  by 
following  certain  practices  they  may  in  some 
world  become  insensible  to  sorrow.  For  ten 
years,  I  ate  no  animal  food,  wore  no  earrings, 
used  no  hair-oil,  had  no  red  color  in  my  shoes, 
and  worshipped  the  gods  continually.  In  adopt- 
ing this  course,  my  husband  neither  opposed  nor 
commended  me.  He  saw  that  I  had  made  up 
my  mind  to  lead  a  religious  life,  and  acquiesced 
in  it. 

About  seven  years  ago,  I  heard  that  a  chapel 
had  been  opened  in  our  city,  and  after  awhile  I 
asked  a  nephew  of  mine  to  take  me  there,  as  I 
knew  that  he  himself  sometimes  went.  But  he 
would  not  take  me,  because  he  was  afraid  that 
some  of  the  powerful  people  in  our  clan  might 
find  it  out,  and  hold  him  responsible  if  I  should 
become  a  Christian.  He  told  the  preacher,  how- 
ever, that  I  wished  to  hear  the  gospel,  and  the 


234  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

preacher  came  to  my  house  and  told  me  about 
the  true  God.  My  sou  Kim  Kek  heard  also, 
and  began  to  go  to  the  chapel  on  Sundays, 
Chinese  New  Year  approached,  and  the  time 
for  special  worship  of  the  household  gods  drew 
near.  I  was  at  a  loss  to  know  what  to  do.  I 
was  afraid  to  neglect  the  family  idols,  lest  they 
should  do  me  some  harm  ;  and  I  was  afraid  to 
worship  them,  lest  the  true  God  should  be  dis- 
pleased with  me.  After  being  long  tossed  to 
and  fro  between  the  old  customs  and  the  new 
truth,  a  happy  idea  came  to  me.  I  sent  for  the 
preacher  to  come  and  take  the  gods  away  at 
once  and  destroy  them,  so  that  they  need  not 
be  worshipped  at  New-year.  Three  of  them 
were  very  large  and  finely  gilded,  and  sat  on  a 
shelf  opposite  the  door,  so  that  one  would  see 
them  as  soon  as  one  entered.  As  the  preacher 
was  taking  them  down,  I  bethought  myself  that 
my  husband  would  come  home,  and  when  he 
found  the  gods  gone  would  beat  me  ;  and  I 
knew  I  was  too  feeble  to  bear  much  beating. 
So  I  asked  the  preacher  to  leave  the  gods  in 
a  corner  of  the  room  till  I  could  persuade  my 
husband  of  their  impotence.  When  my  hus- 
band came  and  saw  that  the  gods  were  dis- 
placed, he  was  angry,  but  did  not  beat  me.     I 


LIGHT    AT    EVENTIDE.  235 

told  him  that,  if  the  gods  were  really  able,  they 
would  punish  me  who  removed  them,  and  that 
1  alone  would  have  to  bear  the  consequences 
of  their  displeasure.  He  said  that,  if  I  and 
Kim  Kek  did  not  want  the  gods,  he  would  give 
them  to  our  married  daughter.  I  tried  to  tell 
him  about  the  great  God  whom  we  all  ought  to 
worship,  but  he  said  that  as  soon  as  he  could 
afford  the  expense  he  would  have  these  gods 
set  up  again.  After  he  went  away  again,  I  had 
the  idols  destroyed.  The  next  time  he  came 
home,  I  was  out  of  the  house.  When  he  saw 
that  the  gods  were  gone,  he  jumped  up  and 
down  and  screamed  with  rage.  Kim  Kek  ran 
and  found  me,  and  we  both  hid  and  prayed  till 
my 


r  husband  was  o'one  out  of  the  house.     Then 


I  told  Kim  Kek  that  when  his  father  came 
home  at  nightfall,  he  must  have  warm  water 
and  the  tub  ready  for  him  to  bathe,  and  must 
be  very  attentive  to  his  wants,  and  hand  every- 
thing he  wanted  to  use  before  he  had  time  to 
ask  for  it.  We  had  supper  ready,  and  I  sat  on 
the  bed  sewing  and  said  nothing  when  he  came 
in,  while  Kim  Kek  waited  on  him.  I  expected 
that  he  would  beat  and  perhaps  kill  me,  and 
I  kept  praying  to  God  to  soften  his  heart.  He 
ate  his  supper  and  went  to  bed,  and  never  said 
a  word  more  about  the  ^ods, 


236  h'A(.Ul)A     MIADUWS. 

I  wished  to  break  my  Buddhistic  vow,  but 
did  not  know  how  to  do  it.  Kim  Kek  told  me 
to  boil  two  eggs,  and  take  them  to  the  chapel 
and  eat  them.  I  hid  the  eggs  under  my  tunic, 
and  went  and  told  the  preacher  what  I  wished 
to  do  ;  and  he  prayed  for  me,  and  I  ate  the 
eggs.  Thus  I  made  of  no  avail  all  the  Buddh- 
istic merit  that  I  had  accumulated  during  ten 
years. 

I  went  to  the  meetings  at  the  chapel  on 
Sundays,  and  some  of  the  sisters  told  me  that 
I  was  doing  wrong  in  making  mock  money. 
They  said  that  a  Christian  must  not  follow  that 
occupation.  I  was  much  perplexed,  for  I  had 
no  other  means  of  earning  my  living,  and  must 
starve  if  I  did  not  work.  I  laid  the  case  before 
the  preacher,  and  he  told  me  that  I  should  go 
on  gilding  paper,  and  meanwhile  constantly 
pray  to  God  to  open  for  me  some  other  way  of 
earning  my  food.  I  did  so,  and  after  awhile,  I 
came  here  to  learn  to  read  the  Bible.  I  learned 
to  read,  and  have  since  been  to  many  distant 
places  to  teach  the  gospel.  My  husband  lives 
with  our  married  daughter.  He  is  a  believer 
w^hen  he  is  with  Christians,  and  a  disbeliever 
when  he  is  with  pagans.  I  keep  praying  the 
Lord  to  make  him  a  true  disciple. 


LIGHT    AT    EVENTIDE.  337 

I  thank  the  Lord  for  making  me  so  happy 
JJunng  all  my  youth,  my  heart  was  hopeless 
and  my  mind  was  benighted  ;  but  now,  when  I 
am  old,  the  Lord  has  shined  upon  me  and  my 
path  is  bright. 


CHAPTER    XXXII. 

HOW   A    FAMILIAR    SPIRIT    WAS    EJECTED    FROM    A 

HOUSEHOLD.  THE    STORY     TOLD     BY     lOLER- 

AXCE. 

The  first  thing  that  I  remember  in  my  life  is 
the  distress  of  extreme  poverty.  My  father 
was  a  simple-minded  man,  and  in  this  country 
such  people  seldom  earn  enough  to  keep  their 
families  from  starving.  He  worked  in  the  fields, 
but  his  wages  were  far  too  small  to  fill  the  eight 
mouths  in  his  house.  My  mother  spun  and 
wove,  but  we  children  were  all  small  and  hun- 
gry, and  she  had  often  no  resource  but  to  go 
out  begging.  I  was  the  eldest  of  the  children, 
and  had  four  brothers.  There  had  been  one 
other  girl  born  into  the  family,  but  my  parents 
were  too  poor  to  keep  more  than  one  daughter. 
My  father's  mother  also  lived  with  us,  having 
no  son  beside  my  father. 

When  I  was  ten  years  old,  my  parents  pawned 
238 


TOLERANCE  AND   HER   KIN. 


A    FAMILIAR    SPIRIT.  24I 

0 

me  to  a  rich  widow,  living  eleven  miles  from  our 
house.  She  had  three  little  children,  and  took 
me  as  a  servant,  feeding  and  clothing  me,  and 
giving  my  parents  twehe  dollars  for  me.  They 
could  have  me  back  when  they  repaid  the  twelve 
dollars.  I  swept  and  washed  and  went  on  er- 
rands, and  took  care  of  the  children.  I  slept 
on  the  brick  floor,  with  no  mosquito-bar  nor 
coverlet,  but  I  had  sufficient  food  and  was  not 
overworked.  People  do  not  generally  oppress 
young  children.  I  often  cried  all  night,  how- 
ever, because  I  was  homesick.  My  grand- 
mother and  my  mother  also  cried  because  I 
was  away  from  them  ;  and  after  five  months 
they  sold  all  the  pigs  we  had,  and  took  the 
money,  and  came  and  redeemed  me.  I  was  so 
glad  to  get  home  that  I  did  not  afterward  much 
mind  the  pains  of  poverty. 

When  I  was  fifteen,  my  mother  was  attacked 
by  a  demon,  and  she  could  not  drive  it  away. 
Christians  have  only  to  resist  the  devil,  and  he 
flees  from  them;  but  people  who  know  nothing 
about  God  have  only  their  own  strength  with 
which  to  meet  demons,  and  they  have  to  suc- 
cumb to  them.  My  mother  had  violent  palpita- 
tion of  the  heart,  spasmodic  contraction  of  the 
muscles,  and  foaming  at  the  mouth.     Then  she 


242  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

would  speak  whatever  the  demon  told  her  to 
say,  and  would  do  whatever  he  impelled.  My 
father  told  her  that  it  was  very  bad  to  be  a  spirit- 
medium  ;  but,  if  she  was  going  to  be  one,  she 
must  be  an  honest  one,  and  never  give  other 
than  good  advice,  nor  take  more  than  fair  pay 
for  her  services.  She  never  took  more  than 
two  or  three  cents  from  any  one  who  came  to 
her  for  a  consultation  with  her  demon.  There 
were  several  spirit-mediums  in  our  village,  but 
none  wiio  were  so  popular  as  my  mother  be- 
came. She  has  three  times  walked  over  beds 
of  burning  coals,  five  or  six  times  washed  her- 
self in  boiling  oil,  and  once  climbed  a  ladder 
of  knives  seventy  feet  high.  There  was  a  dark 
hole  in  the  river  near  our  village,  where  two 
boys  and  a  man  had  at  different  times  been 
drawn  in  and  drowned,  and  it  was  supposed 
that  an  evil  spirit  lived  down  there  and  de- 
voured human  beings.  My  mother,  in  one  of  her 
frenzies,  plunged  into  the  hole,  dived  down  out 
of  sight,  and  brought  up  a  soft  white  animal, 
with  four  legs,  and  a  head  like  a  cat's.  It  was 
put  under  an  inverted  rice-box,  and  for  a  long 
time  nobody  dared  lift  the  cover  off  the  captive. 
When  the  cover  was  lifted,  the  creature  was 
gone.     I  suppose  it  had  been  metamorphosed 


A    FAMILIAR    SPIRIT.  243 

Into  something-  else.  The  report  of  my  mother's 
having  dragged  the  evil  spirit  from  its  den 
spread  far  and  wide  and  brought  many  to  her 
for  advice. 

When  I  was  eighteen,  I  was  married.  My 
husband  was  a  gambler,  and  his  family  so  poor 
that  I  soon  returned  to  my  mother's  house, 
where  I  have  lived  ever  since.  My  husband 
went  abroad,  and  I  have  not  heard  from  him  for 
many  years.  I  have  no  children  except  Cake, 
a  little  girl  that  a  cousin  gave  to  me. 

When  I  was  twenty-two,  my  father  died, 
and  shortly  after,  the  two  young  women  that 
my  mother  had  taken  as  wives  for  two  of  my 
brothers,  both  died  within  twenty  days.  My 
brothers  then  said  that  the  familiar  spirit  was 
a  harmful  one,  and  that  they  would  no  longer 
live  in  the  house  with  it.  The  two  elder  boys 
went  away  and  became  the  sons  of  a  wealthy 
kinsman,  the  third  set  up  housekeeping  apart 
from  us,  and  the  youngest  hired  himself  out  to 
a  petty  official.  My  mother  was  greatly  dis- 
tressed by  all  this,  and  thought  she  would  try 
to  rid  herself  of  her  possessor  ;  but  the  demon 
told  her  that,  if  she  tried  to  evict  him,  she  would 
be  the  worse  for  it,  and  she  then  dared  do  noth- 
ing for  her  own  salvation. 


244  PAGOIW    SHADOWS.  * 

After  awhile,  my  mother  brought  two  old 
women,  one  paralyzed,  the  other  blind,  and 
kept  them  in  her  house  at  her  own  charges. 
She  did  this  in  order  to  make  merit.  It  is  said 
that,  when  one's  accounts  are  balanced  on  one's 
entrance  into  the  next  world,  one  good  act  will 
offset  ten  bad  ones.  My  mother  hoped,  by 
caring  for  these  helpless  women,  to  cancel 
some  of  her  demerits.  The  old  women  could 
not  even  feed  themselves,  and  they  made  a  deal 
of  work  for  me. 

Three  years  ago,  a  friend  of  mine  came  from 
Kui  Su,  twenty-four  miles  away,  to  visit  me. 
She  told  me  that  she  had  heard  from  some  Bible- 
.women  at  Kui  Su  a  new  doctrine  that  was  very 
strange  and  interesting.  She  expounded  it  to 
me,  and  it  seemed  to  me  that  what  she  said  was 
true.  I  had  before  heard  that  there  were  mis- 
sionaries at  Swatow,  who  taught  people  not  to 
worship  idols,  and  I  had  considered  such  teach- 
ing very  reprehensible.  My  eldest  brother,  Po 
Heng,  happened  to  come  home  while  my  friend 
was  with  me,  and  he  also  heard  what  she  said. 
I  told  him  that,  as  his  feet  were  strong  and 
large,  while  mine  were  bound  and  weak,  he  must 
go  to  Kui  Su  for  me,  and  find  out  all  he  could 
about  this  true  God,  and  then   come  back  and 


A    FAMILIAR    SPIRIT.  24^ 

tell  me.  He  went  and  found  the  chapel,  and 
stayed  there  several  days  with  the  preacher, 
Hong  An.  Hong  An  taught  him,  but  did  not 
know  whether  he  was  a  sincere  inquirer,  or 
whether  he  had  some  sinister  object  in  coming 
so  far  and  staying  at  the  chapel.  He  told  Po 
Heng  when  the  next  communion  gathering 
would  be  at  Swatow,  and  that  he  would  do  well 
to  go  then  and  meet  the  assembled  brethren. 
Po  Heng  came  home  and  told  me  what  he  had 
learned,  and  the  next  month  he  and  I  came.  I 
got  my  mother-in-law  to  come  with  me,  so  that 
she  might  have  her  prejudices  removed,  and  not 
thwart  me  if  in  the  future  I  should  wish  to  be- 
come a  Christian.  I  went  home  after  a  few 
days,  convinced  that  the  doctrines  of  Jesus 
were  true.  I  taught  my  mother,  and  she  grad- 
ually believed.  As  the  Holy  Spirit  came  in,  the 
demon  went  out.  When  she  knew  about  the 
true  God  and  trusted  in  Jesus,  she  no  longer 
feared  the  demon,  and  when  he  came  and  ac-'i- 
tated  her  heart  and  twisted  her  muscles,  she 
prayed  to  God  till  the  demon  left  her.  The  idols 
were  all  put  out  of  the  house,  and  the  other 
members  of  the  family  began  to  believe.  The 
old  blind  woman  believed  as  soon  as  she  heard. 
She  still  lives  with  us,  and  w^orships  God.     The 


246  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

paralytic  would  not  listen  to  the  gospel,  and 
declared  that  the  idols  should  not  be  put  out  of 
the  house.  She  was  a  great  trial  to  us  when  we 
found  that  she  would  not  acquiesce  in  our  being 
Christians,  but  in  only  a  month  or  two  after  she 
began  to  oppose  us  she  died. 

All  the  neighbors  protested  against  my  moth- 
er's ceasing  to  interpret  the  will  of  the  gods  to 
them.  When  they  saw  that  Po  Heng  and  I 
were  determined  to  be  Christians,  they  urged 
my  mother  to  separate  herself  from  us,  and  con- 
tinue her  old  occupation.  But  we  held  to  our 
mother,  and  finally  brought  her,  heart  and  all, 
with  us.  We  have  less  money  than  we  had 
when  my  mother  was  a  spirit-medium  ;  but  we 
have  what  is  worth  more  than  money,  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  truth,  and  the  joy  that  comes  from 
the  consciousness  that  we  are  in  the  way  to 
heaven. 

When  Po  Heng  began  to  be'ieve,  his  adopted 
mother,  who  is  quite  wealthy,  and  who  gave  to 
him,  as  to  her  own  sons,  a  monthly  allowance  of 
rice,  told  him  that  if  he  became  a  Christian  he 
would  have  no  more  rice  from  her  bins.  When 
he  was  baptized,  she  did  cut  off  his  allowance  ; 
but  now  she  sees  that  he  is  a  better  son  than 
ever  before,  and  she  again  gives  him  his  stipend. 


A    FAMILIAR    SPIRIT.  24/ 

Though  he  has  now  become  a  preacher,  she 
loves  him  more  than  ever,  and  is  very  proud  of 
him. 

Po  Heng's  wife  was  very  ill  last  year,  and 
once,  when  Po  Heng  and  I  returned  home  from 
the  communion  at  Swatow,  we  found  her  at  the 
point  of  death.  The  neighbors  told  Po  Heng 
to  hasten  and  call  the  best  physicians  ;  but  I 
told  him  we  must  not  put  our  trust  in  physi- 
cians, but  in  God  :  we  were  all  Christians,  and, 
if  we  knelt  around  her  bed  and  prayed  to  God, 
He  would  cure  her.  The  whole  family  was 
called  together,  even  the  little  children  ;  and 
all  joined  in  prayer  for  the  immediate  recovery 
of  the  invalid.  The  next  morning  she  was  much 
better,  and  in  a  few  days  she  got  well. 

Then  we  wanted  to  get  a  wife  for  Po  U,  my 
youngest  brother.  Wives  were  very  dear,  and 
cost  at  least  a  hundred  dollars.  The  heathen 
people  around  us  did  not  want  their  daughters 
to  marry  into  a  Christian  family,  and  we  did 
not  want  to  have  any  one  in  our  family  who 
would  not  be  a  Christian.  There  was  no  Chris- 
tian near  us  who  had  a  daughter  of  a  suitable 
ao-e  for  Po  U,  and  the  distant  Christians  would 
not  let  their  daughters  go  far  from  home  to 
marry.     We  were  much  troubled  by  the  diffi- 


24S  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 


culties  of  the  case.  Just  then,  we  heard  of  a 
young  woman  who  might  be  had  for  a  small 
sum.  She  had  been  a  very  bright,  handsome 
girl,  and  had  been  married  to  a  man  who  was 
an  idiot.  She  had  cried  night  and  day  after  she 
was  taken  to  her  husband's  house,  and  had  be- 
come insane  through  grief.  Her  husband's 
parents  were  afraid  she  would  kill  herself  or 
them,  and  wanted  to  be  rid  of  her.  We  talked 
the  matter  over  in  our  family,  and  decided  that, 
as  her  derangement  of  mind  had  been  caused 
by  misery,  she  would,  when  restored  to  reason, 
embrace  the  religion  of  those  who  should  make 
her  happy.  We  knew  that  Jesus  healed  the 
sick  and  cast  out  demons  ;  and  we  thought  we 
might  take  this  girl,  trusting  Him  to  cure  her 
in  answer  to  our  prayers.  We  therefore  bought 
her,  and  brought  her  home  as  a  wife  for  Po  U. 
Po  U  had  consented  willingly  in  our  plans,  but 
when  he  saw  how  crazy  his  w'lie  was,  his  faith 
failed,  and  he  ran  away  to  foreign  parts.  The 
rest  of  us  prayed  for  her  constantly,  and  in  a 
few  months  she  was  perfectly  well. 

The  familiar  spirit  troubles  my  mother  no 
more.  Every  member  of  our  household  is  a 
believer,  and  several  of  our  neighbors  come  to 
our  house  for  Sunday  \vorship.     But  there  are 


A    FAMILIAR    SPIRIT 


249 


three  thousand  people  in  our  clan,  and  only 
twelve  of  them  are  Christians.  Besides  there 
are  more  villages  than  I  can  count  around  the 
one  in  which  my  mother-in-law  lives  ;  and  no 
Oie  preaches  the  gospel  in  any  of  them. 


chaptp:r  XXXIII. 

THE    PILLARS    OF    THE    CHURCH    AT    SOUTH    SPUR. 

South  Spur  is  a  hamlet  of  a  few  hundreds  of 
people.  A  few  years  ago  there  was  no  church 
there,  and  no  one  there  had  heard  of  Jehovah. 
The  nearest  chapel  was  at  Cannon  Stand,  twelve 
miles  away.  A  woman  named  Lily,  long  resi- 
dent at  South  Spur,  quarrelled  with  her  hus- 
band, and  he  beat  her  and  reviled  her  mother. 
Such  accidents  happen  even  in  the  best  Chinese 
families.  To  the  beating  she  was  not  unaccus- 
tomed, and  that  she  could  bear  ;  but  the  reviling 
of  her  mother  was  something  which  no  woman 
of  spirit  would  permit,  and  which  public  opinion 
would  not  justify.  She  shut  herself  up  in  her 
room,  whose  walls  were  dotted  with  little  shelves 
holding  ido's  of  which  she  was  a  devout  wor- 
shipper. Some  of  these  gods  she  had  experi- 
mentally found  to  be  of  no  use,  and  had  cast 

them  out  of  her  confidence.     Before  the  others 
250 


TREASURE.  LILY. 

THE   PILLARS  OF  THE  CHURCH  AT  SOUTH   SPUR. 


THE    PILLARS    OF    THE    CHURCH.  253 

she  every  day  placed  fresh  cups  of  tea,  kneeling 
while  she  fanned  the  fire  to  boil  the  water  for 
this  sacred  tea,  and  then  offering  it  with  pros- 
trations and  incense.  After  quarrelling  with 
her  husband  on  this  occasion,  she  sat  herself 
down  in  her  trouble  before  her  gods,  but  they 
only  looked  down  upon  her  dumbly.  She  sought 
an  interpreter,  a  sorceress  who  could  tell  her  the 
mind  of  her  idols,  and  through  this  sorceress 
she  learned,  that  in  the  opinion  of  the  gods,  she 
ought  to  leave  her  family  and  go  into  a  Buddh- 
ist nunnery  for  the  rest  of  her  life.  So  she 
gave  direction  to  a  faithful  servant  concerning 
the  care  of  her  two  little  boys,  and  wrote  a 
paper  to  tell  them  where  they  would  find  their 
mother  when  they  should  be  grown  up.  Then 
she  hired  an  old  woman,  who  knew  the  way,  to 
guide  her  in  her  flight  to  a  nunnery  near  the  De- 
partmental City.  She  made  her  escape  unseen 
from  her  own  village,  and  under  the  guidance 
of  the  old  dame  walked  to  Cannon  Stand,  where 
they  were  to  take  a  boat  to  the  city.  At  Cannon 
Stand  they  found  they  must  wait  for  some  hours 
for  the  turn  of  the  tide,  and  they  did  not  know 
what  to  do  in  the  interval.  The  old  dame  said, 
**  I  have  been  told  there  is  a  chapel  here  at 
Cannon  Stand,  and  that  there  are  good  women 


254  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

in  it,  who  teach  a  new  doctrine.  I  do  not  know 
what  sort  of  a  thing  a  chapel  is,  nor  what  is  the 
doctrine  which  is  taught,  but  we  have  nothing 
else  to  do  and  might  go  and  see  what  it  is  all 
like."  So  the  two  made  inquiry  here  and  there 
till  they  found  the  chapel,  where  Keepsake 
greeted  them,  and  finding  them  unwilling  to 
converse,  asked  them  to  sit  down  and  hear  a 
story.  So  they  sat  down  and  heard  that  a 
God  made  the  world,  and  created  man  ;  that 
man  sinned  against  God  and  put  idols  in  His 
place  ;  that  the  Son  of  God  so  loved  the  world 
that  He  came  to  the  earth  to  bring  spiritual 
light  and  truth  to  man,  and  to  save  from  sin  all 
who  should  believe  and  follow  him.  This  story 
so  wrought  on  the  mind  of  the  fugitive  that  she 
told  the  narrator  her  own  history,  and  asked 
what  she  should  do  in  order  to  obey  God. 
Keepsake  advised  her  to  relinquish  her  purpose 
of  gomg  to  the  nunnery,  and  to  stay  at  the 
chapel  a  few  days  and  hear  more  of  these 
truths.  She  stayed  four  days,  while  the  old 
dame  went  back  to  South  Spur  and  told  the 
alarmed  and  penitent  husband  where  his  wife 
was.  Then  the  old  dame  came  again  for  her, 
and  she  went  home  with  juster  ideas  of  duty. 
After  awhile  she  returned  for  further  instruc- 


THE    PILLARS    OF    THE    CHURCH.  255 

tion,  and  then  Keepsake  and  other  teachers 
went  to  her  house  and  taught  her  and  her  neigh- 
bors. At  that  time  she  told  me  her  story  as 
follows  :  — 

LILY'S    STORY. 

"  From  the  earliest  age  I  was  very  fond  of 
going  about  everywhere  worshipping  the  gods. 
I  was  the  youngest  in  our  family,  and  because  I 
was  so,  was  always  anxious  lest  those  who  loved 
me  should  not  live  as  long  as  I.  My  grand- 
father was  an  esquire,  and  my  father  was  called 
the  young  esquire.  When  I  was  seventeen  years 
old  I  was  married  to  the  son  of  an  esquire.  In 
my  own  home  I  was  accustomed  to  be  waited 
upon.  My  brother's  wife  attended  upon  me, 
and  usually  when  I  awoke  in  the  morning  I 
found  my  breakfast  ready  and  waiting  beside 
my  bed.  I  had  nothing  to  do,  and  no  care,  and 
was  as  plump  and  round  as  a  quail.  But  after 
I  was  married  I  had  to  wait  upon  my  husband's 
parents,  as  well  as  upon  his  grandmother  who 
lived  with  them  ;  and  I  had  to  offer  their  tea 
and  everything  else  kneeling,  as  is  the  custom 
in  rich  and  powerful  families.  I  had  also  to 
take  care  of  the  pigs  and  fowls  and  to  carry 
water  and   do   the  washing,   and  as   I  was  the 


2;6  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 


fifth  and  youngest  son's  wife,  all  the  heaviest 
work  came  upon  me.  Before  I  was  married  my 
finger-nails  were  four  inches  long,  as  is  the 
fashion  among  those  who  need  not  work.  These 
I  had  to  cut  off,  that  they  need  not  embarrass 
me  in  the  drudgery  I  had  to  perform  in  my  hus- 
band's house.  I  had  to  turn  the  mill  for  hulling 
rice.  Of  my  three  sisters-in-law  two  were  strong, 
and  had  to  help  hull  the  rice,  but  the  other  one 
was  weakly  and  she  did  the  cooking.  The  fourth 
son  had  died  without  a  wife.  My  two  sisters- 
in-law  set  me  to  turn  the  mill,  while  they  sifted 
the  rice,  so  I  devised  a  plan  by  which  they 
should  have  to  help  me  at  the  mill.  I  asked 
one  of  them  to  let  me  change  work  with  her 
awhile,  knowing  I  was  awkward  at  sifting,  and 
thinking  I  would  sift  very  slowly  so  that  the 
other  sifter,  who  was  expert,  would  have  the 
bulk  of  the  work  to  do.  But  my  plan  did  not 
succeed,  for  the  other  sifter  divided  the  rice 
into  two  equal  portions  and  told  me  that  when 
she  had  sifted  her  portion  she  would  take  a 
rest  until  I  finished  mine.  So  I  found  the  sift- 
ing as  hard  as  turning  the  mill.  I  first  stayed 
in  my  husband's  house  four  months,  and  then  I 
went  to  my  old  home,  very  thin  and  sad,  and 
stayed  eight  months  with  my  own  mother.     I 


THE    PILLARS    OF    THE    CHURCH.  257 

said  nothing  about  my  troubles,  and  was  as 
happy  as  the  day  was  long,  but  when  the  eight 
months  came  to  an  end  and  I  had  to  go  back  to 
my  father-in-law's,  I  wept  and  wailed  aloud,  and 
all  my  clothes  had  to  be  put  on  me  by  main 
force,  and  when  they  began  to  paint  my  face,  I 
fought  and  howled  and  would  not  be  made 
ready.  I  then  told  my  father  how  hard  I  had 
to  work,  and  declared  I  would  not  go  back. 
Then  he  said  he  had  made  a  great  mistake  in 
marrying  his  daughter  to  farming  people  who 
were  so  saving,  and  that  he  would  go  and  be- 
rate them  for  wearing  his  plump  daughter  down 
to  a  shadow  in  four  months.  I  knew  that  if  he 
did  this  they  would  become  aware  that  I  had 
complained  of  them,  and  that  they  would  there- 
fore make  my  life  harder  than  ever.  So  I  be- 
sought him  not  to  say  a  word  to  them,  and  said 
I  would  at  once  go  back  quietly  and  do  my  duty. 
Then  my  father  said  he  would  buy  a  servant  for 
me,  but  as  there  was  none  to  be  bought  on  the 
instant,  he  borrowed  one  from  my  brother's 
wife,  and  I  took  this  borrowed  slave  with  me. 

My  mother-in-law  used  to  put  many  things, 
such  as  oil-cakes  and  sugar,  in  my  room  in  my 
care,  and  others  in  the  household  would  come 
to  me  to  get  these  things  for  use.     I,  being  the 


25 N  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

youngest,  did  not  dare  to  tell  them  not  to  take 
too  much,  and  they  often  did  so,  leaving  me 
with  no  way  of  defending  myself  against  the 
suspicion  of  leaving  used  up  the  things  myself. 
So  I  and  my  servant  used  to  cry  very  often  over 
our  hard  lot.  My  mother-in-law  was  much  dis- 
pleased because  my  handmaid  and  I  cried  to- 
gether, and  because  I  liked  my  servant  more 
than  I  liked  my  husband,  and  she  sent  the  girl 
home  after  she  had  been  with  me  only  eleven 
days,  pretending  that  she  thought  my  brother's 
wife  woukl  want  her.  Then  my  father  bought 
a  slave  and  sent  her  to  me.  She  was  thirteen 
years  old,  and  cost  only  twenty-five  dollars. 
We  thought  this  wonderfully  cheap,  not  know- 
ing that  she  had  any  disease  ;  but  after  a  few 
days  we  learned  that  she  had  fits,  and  she 
frightened  me  almost  out  of  my  senses  when 
she  fell  into  one,  and  so,  as  the  money  for  her 
had  not  been  paid  over,  she  was  sent  back  to 
her  people.  My  father  next  bought  a  six-year- 
old  girl  for  me,  paying  sixteen  dollars  for  her, 
and  thinking  that  I  could  train  her  to  work. 
But  she  was  a  great  care  to  me,  as  I  had  to 
bathe  and  dress  her,  and  sew  for  her,  and 
moreover  she  was  a  little  thief  and  stole  char- 
coal and  cakes,  and  laid  hands  on  whatever  she 


THE    PILLARS    OF    THE    CHURCH.  259 

» 

could  eat.  So  I  onl)'  kept  her  until  she  was 
ten  years  old,  and  then  sold  her  for  twenty-nine 
dollars. 

I  had  no  children  until  I  was  twenty-three 
years  old,  and  the  family  all  leered  at  me  mean- 
while and  said  I  was  a  stone  woman.  My  own 
mother  was  greatly  grieved  on  my  account,  and 
went  far  and  near  seeking  gods  who  were  pow- 
erful in  giving  fruitfulness,  making  offerings  to 
them  in  my  behalf.  I  myself  became  a  devotee 
of  Buddha,  and  fasted  often,  and  had  in  my 
room  as  many  as  twenty  idols  which  I  wor- 
shipped daily,  and  before  which  I  kept  lamps 
burning.  Having  been  told  by  a  witch  to  do  so, 
I  stole  a  rice-bowl  from  a  woman  who  was  the 
mother  of  many  sons,  and  made  of  it  a  new  god 
of  the  bedstead.  One  must  put  into  the  bot- 
tom of  the  bowl  two  scraps  of  red  silk,  two 
veast-cakes,  and  twelve  leaves  taken  from  twelve 
kinds  of  thornless  plants,  and  on  these  pack 
ashes  from  the  kitchen  ranoe,  or  from  a  censer. 
This  constitutes  the  god  of  the  bedstead,  which 
is  kept  on  a  shelf  under  or  over  the  bed,  and  is 
to  be  worshipped  at  the  new  and  the  full  moon 
by  all  women,  from  the  time  of  marriage  until 
the  youngest  child  is  fifteen  years  old.  This  is 
the  god  that  is  depended  upon  to  give  and  pre- 


260  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

serve  children.  Soon  after  I  had  set  up  a  new 
god  of  the  bedstead  I  had  two  children  th'at  did 
not  live,  and  then  when  I  was  twenty-five  my 
son  Jun  Soi  was  born.  Just  before  that  my 
own  father  died  and  I,  remembering  how  he  had 
loved  me,  had  a  great  quantity  of  paper  clothing, 
and  a  trunk,  and  pipes  holding  real  tobacco, 
made  to  burn  at  his  funeral,  with  a  scroll  on 
which  was  written  a  verse  of  my  own  compo- 
sition, saying,  *  Remembering  my  father  I  gaze 
at  the  clouds  and  weep  bitterly,  because  those 
whom  death  divides  meet  no  more.'  On  ac- 
count of  my  great  devotion  to  the  gods,  all  the 
people  of  our  village  respected  me,  and  my  hus- 
band yielded  to  my  opinions,  and  followed  my 
advice  even  in  worldly  affairs.  Now  that  I 
have  become  a  Christian,  I  have  lost  the  esteem 
of  my  neighbors,  but  I  have  gained  what  is  of 
even  greater  value." 

Lily  persisted  against  great  obstacles  in  her 
Christian  career,  and  has  been  so  happy  as  to 
lead  her  husband  to  join  her.  Her  own  mother, 
now  aged,  has  also  through  her  influence  be- 
come a  Christian,  and  so  have  several  others 
among  her  friends  and  kindred.  Lily  is  one  of 
the  six  or  seven  bouAd-footed  women  in  the 
Swatow   church    who,  influenced    by   Christian 


THE    PILLARS    OF    THE    CHURCH.  261 

principle,  have  unbound  their  feet  and  after 
long  and  painful  effort  forced  the  toes  back 
into  their  natural  position,  so  as  to  wear  such 
shoes  .as  do  those  whose  feet  are  not  bound. 
Among  others  taught  first  by  Lily  is  her  neigh- 
bor Treasure,  a  widow  with  one  adopted  son. 
Treasure's  account  of  herself  shows  well  the 
path  by  which  the  mind  of  a  Chinese  woman 
moves  waveringly  on  from  polytheism  to  mono- 
theism. 

TREASURE'S    STORY. 

"I  was  born   of    rich    parents    near    Cannon 
Stand.     Those   belonging   to   a   more   powerful 
branch  of  our  clan,  seized,  during  a  clan  feud, 
the  estate  of  my  parents,  and  they,  after  spend- 
ing all   they   had    in    an   unsuccessful    lawsuit, 
moved  to  the  Departmental  City.     There  they 
married   me  off,  when   I  was  sixteen,  to  a  lad 
a  year  younger  than    I.     Those   who   are   rich 
want  their  sons  to  marry  when  very  young,  so 
that  they  may  soon  have  male  descendants,''and 
as  those  younger  than   my  husband  was,  would 
have   been    too  young   to  marry,  they  got  me, 
who  was   a  year  older,  for  a  wife   for  him.     I 
had  three  daughters,  and  then  a  son  that  died 
when  he  was   ten  days  old,  and  then  another 


262  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

daughter.  I  kept  the  eldest  daughter,  and  she 
lived  till  she  was  nine  years  old.  All  the  other 
daughters  were  put  into  a  hod  and  thrown  alive 
into  the  river,  one  each  year.  My  husband  got 
a  chair-bearer  to  carry  them  off  and  drown 
them.  I  did  not  feel  sorry  when  the  little  girls 
were  carried  away  and  did  not  cry.  I  was 
vexed  because  they  were  not  boys,  and  I  did 
not  want  them,  and  I  hoped  to  have  sons  the 
sooner  if  I  did  not  keep  them.  I  had  not  then 
heard  of  God,  and  I  did  not  think  that  what  I 
did  was  wrong.  When  I  was  twenty-seven 
years  old  my  husband  died,  telling  me  in  dying 
that  I  must  not  marry  again.  In  our  village 
It  is  the  custom  for  those  who  have  no  sons  to 
adopt  as  an  heir  the  child  of  some  relative  of 
the  same  surname,  and  such  an  one  must  be 
sought  for  eight  years  before  one  of  another 
surname  may  be  adopted.  It  may  be  that  a 
relative  will  come  to  reduced  circumstances, 
and  then  he  will  sell  a  son  as  heir  to  another. 
I  waited  and  sought  a  son  for  nearly  eight 
years,  and  then  got  a  second  cousin  of  my 
husband's.  The  boy  vras  named  Illustrious 
Ancestry,  and  was  eight  years  old.  His  father 
owed  me  fifty-six  dollars  and  could  not  pay  it. 
The  debt  with  the  interest  and  the  go-between's 


THE    riLLARS    OF    THE    CHURCH,  263 

fees  came  to  a  hundred  dollars.  After  the  bar- 
gain was  made,  and  before  Illustrious  Ancestry 
was  brought  home,  my  husband's  younger 
brother's  wife  2:ave  birth  to  a  son,  and  I,  hold- 
ing  the  common  superstition  that  for  four 
months  after  the  birth  of  a  child  evil  influences 
hang  about  the  house,  delayed  the  bringing 
home  of  my  son.  But  before  the  four  months 
had  passed  my  father-in-law  died,  and  then  my 
son  had  to  be  brought  home,  that  he  might 
carry  the  censer  in  the  obsequies.  This  is 
always  done  by  the  eldest  son's  son.  We  had 
five  Buddhist  priests  and  their  assistants  to 
perform  the  funeral  rites,  and  we  burned  more 
than  a  hundred  dollars'  worth  of  paper  clothing, 
but  my  father-in-law  is  not  yet  buried,  though 
he  has  been  dead  seven  years. 

Three  years  ago  I  heard  that  a  female 
preacher  had  come  to  our  village,  and  was  stay- 
ing at  Lily's  house.  I  did  not  know  what  sort 
of  being  a  ''preacher"  might  be,  as  I  had  never 
seen  one,  and  I  thought  perhaps  it  was  a  mon- 
strous or  a  deformed  person.  Formerly,  Lily 
and  I  had  sewed  together  and  had  been  great 
friends,  but  I  had  lately  been  much  prejudiced 
against  Lily  because  people  talked  so  much 
about  her   being  a   Christian,   saying  she  had 


264  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

become  a  courtesan,  and  I  had  not  for  a  long 
time  been  to  her  house.  But  I  wanted  to  see 
what  a  preacher  was,  and  so  I  went  to  Lily's 
door,  and  Lily  greeted  me,  and  introduced  me 
to  Keepsake.  Keepsake  took  me  by  the  hand 
and  led  me  to  a  seat  and  taught  me.  I 
thought  the  doctrine  so  good  that  I  at  once 
made  up  my  mind  that  I  would  go  to  the  chapel 
at  Cannon  Stand  and  hear  more  of  it.  Keep- 
sake stayed  only  one  day  in  our  village,  but  she 
spoke  the  gospel  all  the  time  she  was  there  and 
would  chat  of  nothing  else.  After  she  went 
back  to  Cannon  Stand  she  sent  a  letter  to  Lily 
and  told  her  which  day  was  Sunday,  and  that 
she  must  then  come  to  the  chapel  and  bring 
me  with  her.  So  I  made  up  my  mind  to  go 
and  see  for  myself  how  much  was  true  and  how 
much  was  false  of  all  that  was  popularly  said 
against  the  Christians.  That  night  I  dreamed 
that  I  was  daubed  all  over  with  filth.  In  the 
morning  I  told  my  dream  to  my  sister-in-law 
and  she  said  my  dream  was  a  sign  from  our 
dead  father-in-law  that  my  good  name  would  be 
tarnished  if  I  went  to  the  chapel,  so  I  did  not 
go.  Sometime  after,  I  borrowed  Lily's  Bible 
and  read  in  it,  and  my  pig  immediately  died. 
So   I  took  the  Bible  back  to  Lily,  not  daring 


THE    PILLARS    OF    THE    CHURCH.  265 

to  keep  it  longer  in  the  house,  and  I  was  more 
afraid   than   ever   of   the   new   doctrines.      But 
after  awhile  my  heart  desired  to  hear  more  of 
the  gospel,  and  I  went  and  asked   Lily  to  tell 
me    all   that   she  knew  about  the   Great   God. 
Lily  taught  me  to  pray,  and  I  began  to  ask  a 
blessing  before  eating  my  meals,  and  to  pray 
before   I  went  to  sleep.     I  had  only  begun  to 
do  this  when  sixteen  of  my  hens  were  stolen. 
Then  I  thought  the  gods  were  taking  vengeance 
on  me  for  thinking  about  Jesus,  and  I  prayed 
no  more.     Then  Tolerance  came  to  our  village, 
and  stayed  with  Lily,  and  taught  women,  and 
I  remembered  that  long  before  when  I  went  to 
consult    a   spirit-medium   in   the   village   where 
Tolerance   lived,   Tolerance   had   asked    me    to 
take  supper  with  her,  and  so  I  thought  it  would 
be   only  polite   for   me   to   invite   Tolerance   to 
take  supper  with  me  ;    but  I  did  not  mean  to 
listen  to  any  more  doctrine.     When  Tolerance 
came  she  spoke  the  gospel  all  the  time,  even 
while  eating,  and  it  was  really  so  good  that   I 
would    not    let    her   go,   but    persuaded   her   to 
stay  all   night   that   I   might  hear  more,  and   I 
was   so   pleased  with  what   I  heard  that  I  did 
not  sleep  a  wink  all  night  long.     In  the  morn- 
ing I  said  to  Illustrious  Ancestry,  '  My  son,  I 


266  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

think  this  is  right  doctrine,  but  if  \vc  follow  it 
we  shall  be  despised.'  He  answered  saying, 
'  Mother,  if  it  be  right  doctrine,  let  us  follow 
it,  and  endure  being  despised.'  And  so  we 
became  Christians." 

After  this  decision  mother  and  son,  being 
twelve  miles  from  a  chapel,  kept  the  Sabbath 
at  home.  One  Sunday,  Treasure's  brother-in- 
law  came  in,  and  said  **  We  have  had  enough 
of  this.  You  no  longer  worship  the  ancestors, 
nor  give  heed  to  the  family  idols.  Say  now 
whether  you  will  relinquish  this  new  religion, 
and  remain  in  your  home,  or  adhere  to  your 
new  faith  and  be  driven  out  of  this  house  and 
this  village."  Treasure  answered  **  Having 
learned  that  there  is  a  True  God,  I  must  wor- 
ship Him.  Do  with  me  as  you  may,  I  must 
follow  Christ,  for  there  is  a  crown  of  life  for 
those  who,  being  persecuted  for  His  sake,  are 
faithful  unto  death."  Her  brother-in-law  took 
off  his  wooden  shoe,  and  beat  Treasure  on  her 
bound  feet  as  she  knelt,  until  she  was  unable 
to  stand.  He  then  dragged  her  into  the  street 
and  told  two  chair-bearers  to  carry  her  so  far 
away  that  she  could  never  come  back.  At  her 
direction  they  carried  her  to  the  chapel  at 
Cannon    Stand,    where    the    Christian    women 


THE     [MLLARS    OF    THE    CHURCH.  26/ 

cared  for  her,  until  she  was  brought  to  the 
Training  School  at  Swatow.  Her  brother-in- 
law  eventually  allowed  her  to  return  home. 
She  has  done  much  work  as  an  evangelist  in 
her  own  and  neighboring  hamlets,  her  brother 
has  become  a  Christian,  and  the  brother-in-law 
who  beat  her  goes  sometimes  to  hear  preach- 
ing. A  chapel  has  been  erected  at  South  Spur, 
toward  the  building  of  which  Lily  and  her  hus- 
band gave  thirty-five  dollars,  while  Treasure 
gave  twenty-five.  And  this  is  a  list  of  the  fur- 
niture in  Treasure's  house.  The  house  is  eight 
feet  wide  and  sixteen  feet  deep.  The  walls 
are  of  sun-dried  blocks  of  mud,  and  there 
is  no  floor.  A  bedstead  in  the  farther  end  of 
the  room  has  above  it  a  row  of  pine  shelves  on 
which  clothing  is  laid.  The  space  underneath 
the  bedstead  is  used  as  a  store-room.  The  fur- 
niture consists  of  two  pine  tables,  two  feet  by 
three;  two  pine  cupboards,  one  yard  square 
and  one  foot  deep  ;  a  large  splint  basket  for 
holding  unhulled  rice,  and  seven  small  baskets  ; 
two  flat  baskets  used  for  drying  rice  in  the  sun  ; 
one  wash  tub  ;  two  press-boards  ;  two  trestles  ; 
one  high  stool  on  which  she  sits  when  she 
sews,  and  one  low  stool  on  which  she  sits  at 
the  washtub ;  one  counting-board;  two  sieves; 


i68 


PAGODA    SHADOWS. 


a  mason-work  range  for  cooking ;  one  paper 
lantern  and  some  dishes.  On  the  top  of  the 
bedstead  was  stored  a  rude  spinning-wheel ; 
from  the  roof-beams  were  suspended  three- 
hooks,  forked  branches  of  trees,  used  to  hang 
baskets  upon,  A  loom  owned  in  shares  by 
several  women  was  in  the  room,  and  on  this 
Treasure  was  weaving  a  piece  of  cloth,  getting 
thirtv  cents  for  weaving  twentv  vards. 


COTTON    SV1NN1^:G    AND    GINNING. 


CHAPTER    XXXIV. 

LANGUAGE,    LITERATURE,    AND    FOLK-LORE. 

Among  all  classes  in  China  learning  is  highly 
esteemed  and  earnestly  sought.  Schools  for 
boys,  supported  by  voluntary  contributions, 
exist  in  almost  every  village,  and  may  be  at- 
tended even  by  those  who  cannot  afford  to  pay 
for  tuition.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  scarcely  any 
women,  and  but  a  very  small  portion  of  the 
men,  know  how  to  read  ;  but  the  highest  offices 
below  the  throne  are  open  to  the  poorest  in 
the  land,  as  the  reward  of  literary  attainment. 
Stories  are  told  of  a  poor  student  who  bored  a 
hole  through  the  wall  of  his  house,  that  he 
might  have  the  advantage  of  his  neighbor's 
light ;  and  of  a  boy  who  fastened  his  book  to 
the  horns  of  his  ox,  that  he  might  learn  while 
ploughing ;  and  of  a  discouraged  scholar,  who 
was  impelled  to  renewed  exertion  by  hearing  a 
woman,  who  was  rubbing  a  crowbar  on  a  stone, 

269 


2/0  PAiiODA    SHADOWS. 

say  that  she  wanted  a  needle,  and,  having  only 
the  crowbar,  was  determined  to  rub  it  down  to 
the  required  size. 

Every  attainment  in  literature  offers  imme- 
diate rewards  in  social  esteem  and  pecuniary 
advantages.  Examinations  are  frequently  held 
in  the  district  cities,  and  those  who  succeed  in 
them  may  attend  the  examinations  held  twice 
in  three  years  at  the  Departmental  City,  and 
conducted  by  the  prefect  of  the  department, 
and  chancellors  from  Peking.  Those  who  cred- 
itably pass  this  examination,  have  conferred 
upon  them  the  degree  of  Siu  Chai,  or  Promis- 
ing Talent.  They  are  thereafter  exempt  from 
corporal  punishment,  are  sure  of  lucrative  posi- 
tions as  teachers  or  scribes,  and  are  held  in  high 
honor  in  their  native  towns. 

Twice  in  three  years  an  examination  is  held 
in  the  provincial  capitals  ;  and  all  those  who 
have  taken  the  dejiree  of  Siu  Chai  mav  be  ex- 
amined  for  the  higher  degree  of  Ku  Jin,  or 
Promoted  Men.  Each  candidate  is  shut  up 
alone  in  a  small  cell,  into  which  he  is  allowed  to 
take  nothing  but  writing  materials  and  a  little 
food,  and  is  required  to  write  five  essays  and 
poems  on  given  subjects.  A  mistake  in  a  single 
letter  or  quotation  causes  his  name  to  be  erased 


LANGUAGE    AND    LITERATURE.  2/1 

from  the  list  of  competitors.  After  a  three 
days'  examination,  a  few  tens  out  of  several 
hundreds  of  candidates  attain  the  second  degree. 
These  may  afterwards  appear  at  the  examina- 
tions at  Peking-,  and  compete  for  the  higher  de- 
gree of  Chin  Su,  or  Advanced  Scholar.  Those 
who  pass  this  third  examination  may  be  appoint- 
ed to  office,  and  are  sure  of  eminent  situations. 
All  the  district  magistrates  in  the  fourteen  hun- 
dred and  six  districts  of  the  eighteen  provinces 
have  received  the  degree  of  Chin  Su. 

Afterward  the  advanced  scholar  may  by  con- 
tinued study,  and  a  still  severer  examination  in 
the  emperor's  palace,  become  a  member  of  the 
Imperial  Academy,  from  which  the  highest 
officers  of  the  empire  are  chosen. 

China  Proper  has  one  written  and  seven 
spoken  languages.  The  written  language  is 
not  spoken  in  any  part  of  the  Empire,  and  the 
spoken  languages,  except  the  Mandarin,  are  not 
written.  If  an  unlearned  mother  wished  to 
send  a  letter  to  her  son  in  a  neighboring  town, 
she  would  go  to  a  scribe,  and  tell  him  in  the 
colloquial  tongue  what  she  wished  to  say  to  her 
son  ;  the  scribe  would  write  the  message  in  the 
language  of  books,  and  would  receive  a  cent  or 
more  for  his  services.     The  letter  would  then 


2/2  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

be  committed  to  a  letter-carrier  who  would  col- 
lect from  the  recipient  the  amount  of  postage 
noted  on  the  cover,  and  varying  with  the  im- 
portance of  the  contents.  The  son,  if  not  him- 
self a  scholar,  would  take  the  letter  to  a  scribe, 
who  would  give  him  in  the  spoken  dialect  an 
oral  interpretation  of  the  letter.  The  message 
would  have  been  translated  into  and  out  of  the 
written  language  in  going  froni  mother  to  son. 

The  origin  of  the  written  language  antedates 
any  existing  history,  and  its  correct  pronuncia- 
tion is  unknown.  It  is  a  system  of  hieroglyph- 
ics, passionately  admired  by  scholars,  and 
deeply  reverenced  by  the  unlearned.  Eight 
centuries  before  Christ,  these  symbols  were 
traced  on  tablets  of  bamboo  with  a  sharp  metal 
stylus.  Each  character  represents  a  monosyl- 
labic word,  and  is  made  up  of  one  or  more  of 
the  two  hundred  and  fourteen  primitives,  radi- 
cals, or  letters  which  form  the  alphabet.  There 
are  forty  thousand  characters  in  the  standard 
lexicon,  but  only  about  six  thousand  are  gener- 
ally used,  and  a  knowledge  of  three  thousand 
enables  one,  with  occasional  reference  to  a  dic- 
tionary, to  read  many  books  understandingly. 
The  characters  are  usually  arranged  in  vertical 
lines,  to  be   read  downward,  beginning  at  the 


LANGUAGE    AND    LITERATURE.  2/3 

right.  The  first  book  given  to  the  student  is 
the  trimetrical  classic,  which  contains  four  hun- 
dred different  words,  in  rhymed  lines  of  three 
words.  It  has  been  used  for  six  centuries  by 
beginners  learning  to  read.  Its  opening  lines 
are  these  :  — 

"  Man  at  birth 

By  nature  good, 

In  instinct  similar, 

In  practice  diverging." 

Having  mastered  this  primer,  the  student  may 
take  the  one  thousand  character  essay,  which  is 
said  to  have  been  composed  by  a  man  who  was 
supplied  when  in  prison  with  this  number  of 
different  words,  and  to  have  been  required  to 
make  them  into  a  poem.  He  performed  his 
task  in  a  single  night,  but  his  hair  turned  white 
in  the  effort.  The  poem  consists  of  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty  columns  of  four  words  each.  Mr. 
Giles  gives  the  following  translation,  as  a  speci- 
men of  its  style  :  — 

"  Like  arrows  years  flow  swifdy  by ; 
The  sun  shines  brightly  in  the  sky; 
The  starry  firmament  goes  round; 
The  changing  moon  is  constant  found; 
The  heat  remains  the  fuel  spent : 
Be  then  on  time  to  come  intent ; 


274  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

A  dignity  of  mien  maintain, 

As  if  within  some  sacred  fane. 

Adjust  your  dress  with  equal  care 

For  public  or  for  private  wear, 

For  all  men  love  to  crack  a  joke 

At  ignorant  or  vulgar  folk. 

Four  words,  which  give  a  sentence  force, 

Are  really,  so,  indeed,  of  course."' 

The  Sacred  Edict  is  often  taken  up  next. 
The  sixteen  maxims  which  form  the  orround- 
work  of  this  book  were  delivered  in  an  edict  bv 
the  Emperor  Khang  Hi  in  the  latter  part  of 
his  life.  These  maxims,  each  containing  seven 
words,  are  often  seen  written  on  the  walls  of 
public  offices.  The  son  of  Khang  Hi,  thinking 
to  make  their  meaning  more  clear,  wrote  them 
out  more  verbosely,  and  later  on  a  celebrated 
Salt  Commissioner,  Wang-yew-po,  wrote  a  para- 
phrase of  the  whole  book,  simplifying  the  style. 
Thus  amplified  and  simplified  they  fill  three  hun- 
dred pages  duodecimo.  The  following  transla- 
tion of  the  original  maxims  is  by  W.  Milne  :  — 

1st. 

"  Pay  just  regard  to  filial  and  fraternal  duties,  in  order 
to  give  due  importance  to  the  relations  of  life. 

2d. 

Respect  kindred,  in  order  to  display  the  excellence  of 
harmony. 


LANGUAGE    AND    LITERATURE.  2/5 

3d. 
Let  concord  abound  among  those  who  dwell   in   the 
same  neighborhood,  in  order  to  prevent  litigations. 

4th. 
Give  the  chief  place  to  husbandr}-  and  the  culture  of 
the  mulberry-tree,  in  order  to  procure  adequate  supphes 
of  food  and  raiment. 

5th. 
Hold  economy  in  estimation,  in  order  to  prevent  the 
lavish  waste  of  money. 

6th. 
Magnify  academical   learning,  in  order   tc^ direct  the 
scholar's  progress. 

7th. 
Degrade  strange  religions,  in  order  to  exalt  orthodox 
doctrines. 

.8th. 
Explain  the  laws,  in  order  to  warn  the  ignorant  and 
obstinate. 

9th. 
Illustrate  the  principles  of  a  polite  and  yielding  car- 
riage, in  order  to  improve  manners. 

loth. 
Attend  to  the  essential  employments,  in  order  to  give 
unvarying  determination  to  the  will  of  the  people. 

nth. 
Instruct   the   }Outh,  in   order    to    prevent    them    from 
doing  evil. 


2/6  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

1 2th. 
Suppress  all  false  accusing,  in  order  to  secure  protec- 
tion to  the  innocent. 

13th. 
Warn  those  who  hide  deserters,  that  they  may  not  be 
involved  in  their  downfall. 

14th. 
Complete  the  payment  of  the  taxes,  in  order  to  pre- 
vent frequent  urging. 

15th. 
Unite  the  tithings,  in  order  to  extirpate  robbery  and 
theft. 

1 6th. 
Settle  animosities,  that  lives  may  be  duly  valued." 

The  student  next  takes  up  The  Four  Books, 
the  standard  text-books  of  all  the  schools, 
forming  a  complete  curriculum  for  those  who 
compete  in  the  great  examinations.  These  are 
1st,  The  Great  Learning,  a  treatise  on  govern- 
ment, written  by  an  unknown  author,  about  five 
hundred  years  before  Christ :  2d,  The  Doctrine  of 
the  Mean,  relating  to  motives  in  human  conduct, 
and  ascribed  to  the  grandson  of  Confucius  :  3d, 
The  Discourses  of  Confucins,  containing  almost 
all  that  is  known  of  the  life  and  teachings  of 
the  sage :  4th,  TJic  Discourses  of  Mencins, 
including  his  conversations  with  pupils  and 
princes. 


LANGUAGE    AND    LITERATURE.  2/7 

These  books  are  all  committed  to  memory, 
and  their  style  is  the  criterion  for  all  other 
writings.  To  use  characters  as  they  are  used 
in  these  classics  is  literary  excellence.  Many 
years  are  spent  in  acquiring  this  skill,  and  many 
men  study  till  they  are  gray-headed  without  at- 
taining it. 

The  oldest  books  are  the  semi-historic  rec- 
ords which  begin  2952  B.C.  The  Shu-king,  or 
Book  of  History,  relates  to  the  reign  of  Yu,  be- 
ginning 2357  B.C.,  and  was  compiled  by  Con- 
fucius in  the  sixth  century  B.C.  from  ancient 
historical  documents  then  extant.  It  contains 
what  is  left  of  the  early  history  of  China,  down 
to  720  B.C.  Besides  these  histories,  there  are 
to  be  found  in  Chinese  libraries  works  upon 
every  subject  treated  by  authors  in  other  lands. 
I  find  in  a  catalogue  of  books  belonging  to  the 
Royal  Asiatic  Society  the  following  works  :  — 

Fifteen  works  on  history,  including  one  in  d"]  volumes, 
by  the  distinguished  commentator  Choo-fu-chu. 

Lives  of  eminent  men  and  celebrated  females,  in  120 
volumes. 

Biographical  sketches  of  eminent  females,  in  8  volumes. 

Eleven  poetical  works,  consisting  in  all  of  123  volumes. 

A  general  outline  of  plants  and  herbs,  in  43  volumes. 
This  is  considered  the  best  pharmacopoeia  as  well  as  the 
best  botanical  work  in  China. 


2yS  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

Seven  works  on  natural  history,  including  an  account 
of  an  island  whose  inhabitants  are  all  women;  of  a  coun- 
try whose  people  have  holes  through  the  chest,  permit- 
ting convenient  transportation  on  a  pole ;  of  a  region 
where  headless  human  creatures  have  their  eyes,  noses, 
and  mouths  on  the  breast;  and  of  flying  swine  and  footed 
snakes. 

Twenty-eight  works  on  Moral  Philosophy. 

Works  on  Metaphysics  and  Law.  In  the  latter  is  a 
portion  of  the  present  legal  code,  giving  a  method  of 
proving  whether  there  be  consanguinity  between  two 
men.  Take  a  drop  of  blood  from  each,  and  drop  these 
simultaneously  on  the  surface  of  water  in  a  cup.  If  the 
two  drops  mingle  in  sinking,  then  there  is  kinship  be- 
tween the  two  persons;  while  if  they  sink  without  min- 
gling, or  tend  toward  opposite  sides  of  the  cup,  there  is 
no  Dlood-relationship  between  the  parties. 

Among  works  of  fiction  one  of  the  most  popular  is 
"  The  Dream  of  the  Red  Chamber,"  a  novel  in  20  vol- 
umes ;  and  another  is  '•  Heaven's  Rain  and  Flowers,"  in 
30  volumes. 

A  hundred  comedies  of  the  Yuen  dynasty  in  40  vol- 
umes, furnishes  laughter  for  leisure  hours. 

The  second  emperor  of  the  Ming  dynasty  appointed 
a  commission  of  scholars  to  collect  in  one  body  all  the 
classical,  historical,  philosophical,  and  literary  works  hith- 
erto published,  embracing  Astronomy,  Geography,  the 
Occult  Sciences,  Medicine,  Buddhism.  Tauism,  and  the 
arts.  This  work,  executed  by  five  chief  and  twenty  sub- 
directors,  with  2,169  subordinates,  contained  in  all  22,877 
books,  beside  the  table  of  contents,  which  occupied  60 
books  more. 


LANGUAGE    AND    LITERATURE.  2/9 

The  Emperor  Khang  Hi,  second  of  the  present  dy- 
nasty, who  reigned  sixty-one  years,  covering  the  end  of 
the  seventeenth  and  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth 
centuries,  caused  to  be  pubHshed  under  his  personal 
supervision  the  following  compilations  known  as  the  four 
great  works  of  the  present  dynasty. 

ist.  A  huge  thesaurus  of  extracts,  in  no  thick  vol- 
umes. 

2d.  An  encyclopaedia,  in  450  books. 

3d.  An  enlarged  and  improved  edition  of  an  herba- 
rium, in  100  books. 

4th.  A  complete  collection  of  the  important  philo- 
sophical writings  of  Chu  Hi,  in  66  books. 

In  addition  to  these  this  Emperor  designed  and  gave 
his  name  to  the  great  modern  lexicon  of  the  Chinese 
language,  which  contains  over  40,000  characters  under 
separate  entries,  accompanied  by  citations  from  the  works 
of  authors  of  every  age.  Its  compilation  occupied  thirty 
literary  men  five  years. 

Of  this  bulk  of  Chinese  Hterature  much  has 
during  the  present  century  been  translated  into 
European  tongues,  and  thus  there  has  been 
opened  to  us  an  easy  way  of  access  to  the 
thoughts  of  a  vast  people  that  have  occupied  a 
portion  of  the  habitable  earth  longer  than  any 
other  one  portion  has  ever  been  occupied  by  any 
other  one  people.  But  no  important  addition  to 
the  sum  of  Western  knowledge  has  thereby  been 
gained.      For  hundreds   of   years    the   Chinese 


28o  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

have  discovered  nothing,  invented  nothing,  im- 
proved nothing. 

Books  are  so  cheap  as  to  be  within  reach  of 
all.  A  copy  of  the  trimetrical  classic,  with 
thirteen  leaves,  costs  one  cent,  and  a  volume 
of  Confucius,  with  thirty-six  leaves,  costs  two 
cents.  Sets  of  books  in  wooden  covers,  largely 
illustrated,  and  in  the  best  style  of  the  book- 
maker's art,  cost  two  or  three  dollars.  Books 
called  "  Exhortations  to  Morality  "  are  printed 
.and  gratuitously  distributed  as  a  Buddhistic 
work  of  merit.  One  of  these  books,  which  was 
given  to  me  by  a  native  tract-distributor,  has  a 
preface  which  says  that  if  this  book  be  carried 
in  a  boat,  the  wind  will  be  favorable  and  the 
waves  will  not  be  high ;  if  kept  on  the  person 
of  a  traveller  he  will  meet  no  robbers,  and 
though  he  walk  a  thousand  miles  he  will  feel 
neither  heat,  cold,  nor  thirst ;  if  laid  up  in  a 
house  the  demons  will  all  withdraw  from  the 
dwelling ;  if  read  by  a  woman,  she  will  bear 
five  sons  and  two  daughters  ;  if  read  by  a  man 
he  will  attain  a  literary  degree  ;  and  all  who 
ponder  it  carefully  will  have  the  length  of  life 
doubled.  After  this  series  of  falsehoods  the 
book  proceeds  to  exhort  its  readers  to  practise 
truthfulness,  and  other  virtues. 


LANGUAGE    AND    LITERATURE.  28 1 

The  colloquial  dialects  are  as  unlike  each 
other  as  are  the  languages  of  southern  Europe. 
A  company  of  seven  men,  one  from  Peking, 
one  from  Shanghai,  one  from  Ningpo,  one  from 
Foochow,  one  from  Svvatow,  one  from  Canton, 
and  one  from  Hakka  highlands,  would  be  unable 
to  communicate  with  each  other  in  oral  speech. 
The  Mandarin  dialect  is  spoken  in  the  northern 
and  western  provinces,  by  probably  half  the 
people  of  the  empire,  the  Shanghai  dialect  by 
about  thirty-four  millions,  and  the  Swatow  dia- 
lect by  perhaps  six  millions.  Within  the  region 
over  which  a  single  dialect  is  used,  there  are 
such  differences  of  pronunciation  as  to  make 
the  speech  of  one  town  unintelligible  in  another, 
and  there  is  often  great  unlikeness  in  the  vo- 
cabulary of  two  neighboring  villages.  But  with 
a  single  written  and  seven  spoken  languages 
one  may  communicate  in  China  with  a  third  of 
the  population  of  the  earth,  while  in  order  to 
reach  the  other  two-thirds  of  the  human  family 
one  must  know  3063  languages.  The  English 
language  reaches  less  than  a  hundred  millions 
of  people,  while  the  Mandarin  dialect  is  used 
by  perhaps  two  hundred  millions. 

One  of  the  primary  difficulties  met  by  the 
learner  of  a  Chinese  dialect  lies  in  the  tones, 


282  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

which  vary  for  the  same  syllable,  giving  the 
word  diverse  meanings  according  to  the  manner 
in  which  it  is  pronounced.  There  are  four  tones 
in  the  northern  dialects  and  eight  in  the  south- 
ern. At  Swatow,  see,  evenly  enunciated,  means 
a  corpse  ;  see  in  a  high  key  means  a  spoon  ; 
see  with  a  falling  slide  means  to  die  ;  see  with  a 
rising  slide  means  to  be  ;  see  with  a  questioning 
intonation  means  mankind ;  see  in  a  low  key 
means  catsup  ;  sec  abruptly  spoken  in  a  medium 
key  means  to  flash  ;  and  see  abruptlv  spoken  in 
a  high  key  means  to  consume.  Taw,  is  a 
knife,  a  cluster,  a  pocket,  or  the  floor,  according 
to  the  tone  in  which  it  is  uttered.  Of  course 
misunderstandings  are  frequent  in  a  language 
in  which  iva  in  one  key  means  a  saddle,  and  in 
another  key  means  a  bowl  ;  and  where  tong  in  a 
low  tone  means  satin,  and  in  a  high  tone  means 
sugar ;  and  where  too  with  one  inflection  means 
a  hoe,  and  with  slightly  different  inflection 
means  a  hog. 

Little  accidents  often  arise  from  mispronun- 
ciation ;  such  as  happened  at  Swatow  to  a 
foreign  housekeeper  who  sent  her  cook  to  buy 
tree  strawberries,  and  was  surprised  to  see  him 
return  bringing  a  sheep's  tail ;  the  difference 
between  the  names  of   the  two  articles  being 


LANGUAGE    AND    LITERATURE.  283 

merely  that  between  ie  bile  and  ie  bue :  or  such 
as  happened  in  North  China,  to  a  young  mis- 
sionary lady  eager  to  be  spiritually  useful  to  the 
people,  who  began,  after  a  few  months'  study 
of  the  language,  to  teach  a  class  of  boys  in  a 
Sunday  School.  She  was  telling  the  boys  about 
King  David,  and  referred  to  his  having  once 
slain  a  lion.  She  found  that  the  boys  were  not 
impressed  as  she  expected  by  this  evidence  of 
David's  courage,  and  was  a  little  surprised  after 
the  class  was  dismissed  by  overhearing  one  of 
the  boys  saying  to  another  ''  I  do  not  see  that 
David  was  so  very  brave  in  killing  that  creature  ; 
I  myself  have  killed  a  great  many  of  them." 
On  careful  reconsideration  of  what  she  had  said 
however,  she  discovered  that  while  shai  meant 
a  lion,  sJidi  meant  a  louse. 

Peculiar  articulate  sounds,  and  sino-ular 
idioms,  add  to  the  difificulty  of  acquiring  the 
language,  but  as  there  is  no  conjugation  of 
verbs  nor  declension  of  nouns  to  be  mastered, 
it  is  on  the  whole.,  with  the  helps  that  have  been 
made  for  students,  not  more  difficult  to  learn 
a  Chinese  dialect  than  to  learn  German  or 
Si^anish. 

The  masses  of  the  people  do  not  know  how. 
to  read,  but  there  exists   amons:  them   an  im- 


284  PAGODA    SHADOWS. 

mense  folk-lore,  which  affects  their  character, 
conduct,  customs,  and  thoughts.  The  wisdom 
acquired  by  experience  is  accumulated  and  com- 
municated in  proverbs,  of  which  every  man  is 
as  full  as  was  the  servant  of  Don  Quixote. 
Some  of  our  own  proverbs  are  repeated,  such 
as,  "  IMisfortunes  never  come  single  ;  "  "  If  the 
blind  lead  the  blind  both  fall  into  the  ditch;" 
"  Man  proposes.  Heaven  disposes  ;  "  "  Do  as 
you  would  be  done  by  ;  "  "  Practice  makes  per- 
fect." Our  saying,  *'  Necessity  is  the  mother 
of  invention  "  is  paralleled  by  their  *'  Need 
breeds  device;"  our  "Haste  makes  waste,"  by 
their  "  Urgent  spinning  makes  bad  yarn  ;  "  our 
*'  If  you  mount  a  horse  you  must  ride  him," 
by  their  "  He  who  bestrides  a  tiger  finds  it 
hard  to  dismount  ;"  our  "Pot  calling  the  kettle 
black,"  by  their  **  Tortoise  laughing  at  the  turtle 
for  having  no  hair  ;  "  our  '*  Looking  for  a  needle 
in  a  hay-stack,"  by  their  ''Dredging  the  sea  for 
a  pin;"  our  "Handsome  is  that  handsome 
does,"  by  their  "Looks  are  born  in  the  heart." 
They  say,  "  Tinder  should  not  be  stored  near  a 
fire;"  "A  red-nosed  man  will  be  considered  a 
drunkard  whether  he  taste  wine  or  not ;  "  "  Cut- 
ting off  the  nose  does  not  remedy  a  bad  odor  ;  " 
"A  sluice  that  does  not  perform  its  ofifice  is  a 


LANGUAGE    AND    LITERATURE.  28$ 

cess-pool;"    ''When   the   mule   is   beaten  the 
horse  is  frightened  also  ;"  ''  It  is  hardly  worth 
while  playing  the  guitar  to  an  ox;"    "If   you 
cannot  have  the  dumpling,  it  is  somethmg  to 
have  the  soup  in  which  it  was  boiled  ;  "   ''  Sin  is 
the  root  of  sorrow;"   ''Right  heart   need   not 
fear   evil    seeming."      An    improvident  man  is 
spoken  of  as  one  who  waits  till  he  is  thirsty  be- 
fore digging  a  well  ;  a  prudent  man  as  one  who 
waits  to  see  his  guest  before  spreading  his  feast ; 
an  unreasoning  man   as  one  who  cuts   down  a 
tree  in  order  to  catch  the  bird  perched  on  its 
branch,  or  as  one  who  breaks  up  his  furniture- 
in  order  to  kill  the  rat  concealed  therein. 

The  public  story-teller  may  be  seen  by  the 
street-side,  or  under  an  awning  in  an  open  area, 
narrating  popular  tales  to  a  crowd  of  by-standers 
who  throw  into  his  tray  a  few  cash,  expressive 
of  their  pleasure  in  his  recital.  The  Chinese 
have  no  firesides,  but  within  the  glimmer  of  the 
evening  lamp,  consisting  usually  of  a  saucer  of 
peanut-oil  with  a  bulrush  pith  in  it  as  a  wick, 
many  stories  not  found  in  books,  are  told  to  the 
delight  of  young  and  old. 


MISSIONARY  HELPS. 


Rambles  in  Mission  Fields. 

By  Dr.  S    F    Smith. 
It  IS  comi^osed  of  letters  written  during  the  autlior's  recent  visits  to 
various  missions  in  Burma.  India,  and  Europe. 

lanio.     400  pp.     Price,  postpaid,  51.25. 


From  Darkness  to  Light. 

Bv  Rev.  J.  E    Clough, 

MISSIONARY    OF   THE    A      V..    M.    I'NION    AT   ONGOLE. 

This  intensely  intcrestnig  story,  though  strange  and  fascinating 
as  any  romance,  is  perfectly  true ;  both  the  hero  and  heroine  being 
graduates  of  tlie  school  at   Kamapatam. 

Cloth.     Illustrated.     Price  Si. 2;. 


^   OUR  Gold  Mine. 

Bv  Mrs.  Ada  C.  Ch.aplin. 
An   illustrated  story  ot   our  missions  in    India  and   Burma,     Sixth 
Edition. 

Price,  postpaid,  $1.25. 


MISSIONARY   SKETCHES. 

Bv  Dr.  S.  F.  Smith. 

FORMERLY    EDITOK    OF   '*  THF.    MISSIONARY    MAGAZINE."    ALTHOR 
OF   '"  AMERICA,"    ETC. 

Brol'ght  l'p  to  n.ATE  BV  Rev.  E.  F.  Merri.\m. 
Fourth  Edition.     Price,  postpaid,  $1  25. 
The  demand  for  this  book  from  all  quarters  induced  the  writer  to 
give  a  sketch  ot  about  twenty  pages  of  each  of  the  twenty  missions 
under  the  Union. 


W.    G.    CORTHELL,  Publisher. 

TREMONT  TEMPLE,    1!0ST0N 


